The Departed

and rob her of speech, but damn it, she wouldn’t let them. She started to wipe them away and that was when she looked down…and saw what she held in her hand. What he’d been holding when she woke up.
    Her necklace.
    This time, she couldn’t stop the sob, couldn’t stop the tears. She had nothing of her past, save for this necklace. It had come from her grandmother—a woman who’d died when Dez had been almost too young to remember her. But she knew the woman had loved her. The one person who had loved her.
    All this time, she’d thought it was lost—destroyed or tossed aside in the rush to save her life, maybe, the night she’d been hurt.
    Through her tears, she looked up and stared at Taylor. “Where…where did you find this?”
    “I’ve had it since that night.” He stared at the bit of gold swinging from her fist, his gaze rapt, like he couldn’t look away. “I…I kept telling myself I’d mail it to you. Then maybe I’d convince myself I’d bring it to you, and apologize. Make sure you were doing okay. But I couldn’t let it go.”
    “Couldn’t let it go?” She shook her head. “What is this? Damn it, what is going on?”
    “I finally let myself admit something,” he said, his voice raw and harsh. “I figured something out. Figured out what I need, Dez.”
    “Yeah?” She swallowed the tears clogging her throat. Hope tried to dance in her chest, but she didn’t want to believe in it. Didn’t dare. “What do you need, Jones? Do you even know how to let yourself need something?”
    “Not a what, not a thing,” Taylor said quietly. He looked back at her. “Who. You , damn it. And you’ve known it all along. Better than I did. I need you and I knew if I just let you walk last night, that was it. It was done.”
    “I did walk,” she pointed out, lowering her gaze to the necklace for a moment before looking back up at him.
    He gave her a faint grin. “But you didn’t get away. You’ve been stuck with me all night, even now.”
    She snorted. She managed a casual shrug as she inspected the chain of her necklace. It was damaged, but that was okay. The chain wasn’t the important part. She’d replaced it four or five times over the years. The cross was what mattered to her. “Circumstances, Jones. You can’t claim credit for circumstances.”
    Taylor reached up, scratching at the light golden stubble on his chin. “Actually…there were no circumstances. I had no reason to take you back to the kid’s house—I was just trying to stall and figure out how to make my brain and mouth cooperate.”
    Dez stared at him. “No circumstances. That’s bullshit. We found a trail.”
    “Dumb luck.” Taylor shrugged. “I wasn’t entirely surprised when you picked something up, but I wasn’t exactly expecting it to happen, either—like you said, you’re not one of my bloodhounds. It was just a last-ditch effort to keep you from holing up in here away from me.”
    “Ahhh. Hmmm.” She licked her lips and then, before she did anything else, she set the necklace down. Carefully. She couldn’t lose it again. That he’d cared for it all these months made it that much more precious, she realized. Even if she wouldn’t let herself acknowledge it. That done, she drew her knees to her chest and made herself think about what he’d just said.
    He’d lied to her. Hell, he’d also kept something she treasured for over a year. Yeah. She should be pissed off. He’d lied, after all, right? But somewhere inside, instead of fury, she felt something that just might have been hope. Or even glee.
    Pressing her face to her knees, she took a deep breath. She needed to think and focus. Think. Focus. And get the hell away from him. Yeah. That was a good plan. She should get out of the bed and walk away. Without looking at him. Because if she looked at him, she was lost. So lost, so screwed. She swallowed and tried to send the command to her body.
    Said body wasn’t in the mood to cooperate.
    Okay. So she’d tell him to leave. That would work, too, right?
    Sucking in a deep breath, she opened her mouth.
    But what came out wasn’t an order to leave. Instead, she blurted out, “What the hell does it matter if I hole up away from you now ? When did things change all of a sudden?”
    And she made the mistake of looking at him. Her gaze locked with his and she fell into that steely blue—usually so cold, so flat and emotionless. But now…not cold. And while she couldn’t entirely understand the