He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not

sitting here?” Amanda asked sweetly, turning her sunny smile on him.
    He shot a glance at Logan then looked back at her. “Uh, no, not at all. There’s plenty of room.”
    “Good. Let’s eat. I’m starving.”
    Logan sat. He leaned back with his long legs spread out in front of him and crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re normally not much of a breakfast person. You must have worked up quite an appetite last night to be so hungry.”
    Madison choked on the water she was drinking.
    Amanda stabbed at a container of cream cheese and smacked a glob of it onto the top of a blueberry bagel. “Actually, I must have slept through the whole night because I can’t remember anything . . . well . . . memorable.”
    His face darkened and he leaned forward, his jaw tensed. “Do you need me to remind you what we were doing? Sweetheart?”
    Her face flushed but she returned his glare with a smoldering one of her own.
    Madison smacked her hands on the table and stood. “You two obviously need some privacy to work out whatever is bothering you. Pierce, would you join me inside, please?”
    She crossed to the French door and yanked it open. “Pierce?”
    He glanced at Logan. “Am I still going to take her to the—”
    “Yes,” Logan said.
    “No,” Amanda said at the same time.
    Pierce held his hands up in surrender and followed Madison into the house.
    “What was that about?” Logan demanded.
    “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.” She grabbed the can of Dr. Pepper he’d obviously brought out for her and took a deep swallow.
    “Let’s take a walk,” he said.
    “I’m eating.”
    “No, you’re not. We need to talk.”
    She dropped her bagel on her plate. “There’s nothing to talk about. I’m not going with Pierce. Period. You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”
    “I don’t want you to leave. I need you to leave, so I know you’re safe. If something happened to you . . .” He shook his head and looked away, his fists clenched on the table.
    She felt her anger draining away. She was being childish, she knew it, but it was so difficult to think about leaving him after everything that had happened in the past two days. Her love for him was so new, her need for him so raw she couldn’t stand the thought of not being with him.
    It wasn’t fair for her to be angry at him for wanting to protect her when that was one of the reasons she was drawn to him in the first place. He had a sense of honor and duty, and put everything he had into his work. And no matter how much it galled her, right now she was part of that work, and she needed to let him do what he felt should be done. If leaving was what it took for him to be able to do his job, then she would have to leave.
    That didn’t mean she was happy about it.
    She shoved away from the table and he was suddenly behind her, pulling out her chair.
    “Can you at least tell me where I’m going?” she asked. “And tell me how long I’ll be gone, before you send me away?”
    “I wasn’t going to toss you in the car without discussing anything.” He sighed and raked a hand through his hair.
    She noticed his hair was starting to look a little ragged, longer than he normally wore it. He needed a haircut. There were shadows beneath his eyes too. Not just since last night. She’d noticed them several days ago.
    He was tired, wasn’t sleeping well, and wasn’t putting himself first. Instead, he was putting her first: working long hours and still coming home and making time for her, like when they’d gone boating, even though he was running on adrenaline and exhaustion.
    And here she was giving him a hard time. She wanted to kick herself.
    “Is that offer for a walk still open?” she asked, hoping he would want to go to the bench by the creek, or maybe even all the way to the dock. They could sit and watch the pelicans and seagulls fly by, take off their shoes and let their feet hang in the cooling current.
    It would be a wonderful way to say goodbye, because that’s what she had to do. Say goodbye, go to the safe house so she didn’t distract him any further, so he could work on the case without worrying about her.
    He leaned down and tenderly kissed the top of her head. “Let’s go.”
    They held hands and walked across the deck, down onto the soft carpet of grass. She smiled as he led her toward the now-familiar opening in the pines.
    When they neared the woods, a small section of bark erupted from the tree near Logan’s