Page 125 of A Violet Obsession

His thumb skims the unhurt side of my jaw. “Let’s try not to make it a habit, okay?” He cocks his head, and the faint sound of sirens reaches me. “Right now, though, we need to go because the cops are four minutes out, and you just shot a guy in the dick.”

45

FINN

“You’re staring,” she says, her eyes closed.

“I’m allowed.”

I am. She’s draped half over me, bare and warm.

“Mm.” She turns her face into my shoulder. “Did you hear anything about Trevor?”

“Concussion, lost a tooth, but he’ll live.”

“I can’t believe he didn’t know. I feel bad suspecting him, but—” she stops. “Do you think Dawn is right? That he’s had feelings for me?”

“I don’t know.” I keep my voice calm, “Did he ever make you uncomfortable? Say anything? Do anything?”

She shakes her head, her curls dragging softly against my collarbone. “No, he was always just… Trevor. If he’d been having thoughts like that, I think I’d have picked up on it. Assuming the worst in men was pretty much my default setting by the time I met him.” She sighs, and I feel it move through her whole body and into mine. “He was my friend.”

Tension I hadn’t known I was still holding eases out of my shoulders.

“Maybe he still can be,” I say. “Once all this is settled.”

I’ll be keeping an eye on the fucker, regardless.

“Hey.” She tilts her chin up so it’s resting on my chest, looking at me. “What happens to me now?”

My brows pull together. I stroke a slow line up her bare shoulder, and along the curve, just because I can. “What we talked about with Luke this afternoon. We turn over the recording and the proof that the subliminals were rigged to the police. You lie low until Noah’s back with the necklace and gives his statement. Luke expects your part in the investigation will be over after that.”

“No.” Her nail draws a pattern on my chest, a nervous little motion. “After. Like, what do I do? I’ve got two names now, and both of them are attached to a crime. I’m going to be really sought-after. Employers will be beating down my door.”

My chest clenches at her defeated tone. “I could give you a new one.”

She lifts her head all the way to look at me. “A new what?”

“Name. And I can scrub most of your name off the internet while I’m at it.” I shrug against the pillows like it’s nothing. “I’m good at it.”

“Looks like having a genius for a boyfriend’s going to come in handy.” A slow smile. “You’re going to give me a whole new last name.”

I smile back.

That’s not what I meant.

“Does that mean you get to help pick what it is?” she teases, settling her cheek back against me.

Take mine, the thought lands, fully formed and completely insane. Right?

Instead, I say, “You can be whoever you want. When this is over, you’ll have actual choices again, and I’ll back whatever you decide. But—” The words snag, the way they always do for me, right when I need them most. “I don’t want to take you home.”

She goes still against me. “Okay?”

“I mean, your apartment. I don’t want to drop you there and drive away and sleep thirty minutes from where you are.”

“Finn.”

“Move in with me.”