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“No,” I said firmly “Not like this”

Eli’s dead eyes held ers down his cheek and whispered his name that he finally seemed to snap out of whatever daze he’d been in Life rushed back into his gaze and he looked down atout ofsteps back from me I used the ti the zipper up when Eli bolted

“Eli-” I shouted as I followed hi his car door and I slaet in I pinned his body with et away

“I’m sorry!” he cried “I’m sorry!”

“Eli, it’s okay,” I said as I reached up to grab his ar a short sleeved shirt so I was able to touch his skin which actually felt cold and cla deep down in his throat I sensed he was on the verge of a full blown panic attack so I wrapped my arms around him and dropped my mouth to his ear

“Shhhh, just take deep breaths, okay?”

My words see over and over that he was sorry Sorew and I began o…before I’d realized that they didn’t apply to me

I kept repeating the in deep breaths We were leaning heavily against his car door,eased as his breathing slowed, but he was still tre The sobs had stopped, but I could feeldown onto my forearm which was still braced across his upper chest I let the words trail off, but instead of releasing Eli, I leaned down to brush my lips across the back of his neck His skin was soft and much warmer than it had been a fewdeep breaths, they weren’t as agonized as they’d been

We stood there for several long an to wane, I realized how good Eli’s body felt pressed up against mine At some point he’d lifted one of his hands to close over the aret free ofon Like I’d becoed, but I couldn’t force myself to release him

“I…I need to go,” Eli said shakily, though he didn’t release his hold on rip just a little

“We need to talk about what just happened,” I said, but even before I finished the state his head

“It was a mistake I’m sorry”

“Eli-”

“Please, Mav…please just let o”

I hated how frail and uneven his voice sounded While he wasn’t in a near panic like he’d been before, he was definitely still on the edge I reluctantly let hi the car door He whispered yet another apology toin his car It sputtered to life a moment later, but Eli didn’t look at me even once as he pulled out of the space and drove off I wanted to follow him and demand that he tell et otten, I pulled outworound vigilante organization he ran and that I’d been working for for nearly five years But as I was about to hit the button to initiate the call, I felt a rush of ih me and I put my phone away and cliet the inforh priority cases she orking on And it was more than likely that any information she shared with me would be shared with Ronan as well Since he knew Eli, he’d want an explanation as to why I was digging into the young man’s past

It was so I wasn’t ready to try to explain…not to Ronan and not to myself

Chapter Four

Eli

I was tempted to not answer the knock on the door, especially since I had a good guess as to who it was Huh me as I wiped away the tears that I hadn’t been able to stem from the moment I’d realized that I’d made a terrible mistake after Mav had told me he didn’t want my money