Page 103 of In Too Deep

“I don’t know why I went.” He turned back. “I just… did. Soon as I heard Hull, summat in me wouldn’t let it go. And I didn’t know who she were. She were some random lass on a street corner.”

“Who happens to be connected to our murder victim.”

“Fuck.” Jake swallowed hard. “I didn’t know that. And I didn’t tell her owt.”

“You asked her about a tattoo you shouldn’t have known about.”

Jake exhaled hard. “Aye, okay, maybe I were stupid, but it were for Robyn.”

Harrison let out a breath full of exasperation. Disappointment, even. “I told you to leave it alone.”

“I know.”

“I meant it.”

“And you should know it ain’t that simple for me.”

Harrison stilled, waiting for some sort of explanation.

So he gave the only one he had. “I hear ghosts, same as you.”

Harrison swallowed, and Jake could see the pulse beating hard in his throat beneath the collar of his shirt.

“I’m trying very hard to do this properly.” Harrison glanced down at the sharp shine of his polished black shoes opposite Jake’s mud-caked steel-toe boots. The contrast between them was suddenly unbearable. “The job. Us. All of it.” When he looked back up, the anger had thinned enough for Jake to see what sat underneath it. Fear. Raw with exhaustion. “But sometimes I think neither of us appreciates how badly this could go.”

The words hit Jake hard enough to hollow him out. Because one part of him heard the truth buried in it. Heard how much Harrison cared. But another part only heard danger.

Burden.

Regret.

Harrison straightened. “I need you to stay away.”

“From the case?” Jake cocked his head. “Or you?”

Harrison’s mouth pinched, and the hesitation was worse than an answer.

Jake straightened. “It’s a pretty fucking simple question, Detective.”

“That’s the point, Jake. It’s not.”

“Right.”

“I don’t know how to separate the two anymore. Not when you get yourself involved.”

Jake flinched. Actually fucking flinched, as though Harrison had landed that blow somewhere physical. But then Harrison stepped closer, almost as if instinct had overridden whatever distance he’d just tried to put between them. He dragged his sunglasses down, and the anger still burning in those deep brown eyes wasn’t what hollowed Jake out.

It was the fear underneath it.

“If there’s any chance of me getting proper resources behind Robyn’s case, any chance of me leading it myself instead of having it handed off to someone else, then your name cannot keep appearing in my enquiries.”

Jake swallowed. “Right.”

“I meant what I said before. Obsessing over things can do more harm than good.” Harrison held his gaze. “And trust me, I’ve buried the consequences of that.”

Jake recoiled.

Chris.