You saved her. Fine, he said in his mind.But that doesn’t mean you’ve earned a damn thing from me.
Not yet. If ever.
Theo took two steps inside and stopped, his hands loose at his sides, his posture wary but not defensive.
Bennett didn’t move from the couch.
Didn’t need to.
The air in the apartment was thick enough to cut with a blade, and every second stretched like barbed wire between them.
Laurel closed the door gently, then lingered for a breath. “Thank you for helping me today,” she said, before releasing the blanket to hug the man.
After a beat, his cousin slid his arms around her and patted her back. “Glad I was near.”
“Me, too.” She laughed, sincerity and a bit of hysterical tension bleeding through the sound.
She hadn’t quite come down from the adrenaline yet. Bennett clenched his jaw, hating that she had been put through such an ordeal. Hating that he hadn’t been able to protect her from it.
Hating that he’d failed her.
Theo drew back from the embrace, bent to pick up the blanket, and handed it to her.
“Thanks,” she said, wrapping it around her shoulders again before walking back toward the center of the room. She didn’t look nervous. She didn’t even look uncertain.
She just looked steady.
And that, somehow, cut deeper than anything else.
She stopped between them, her gaze moving from one man to the other before settling on Bennett.
“You don’t have to talk,” she said softly, her voice clear but calm. “Not if you’re not ready. But I need you to know…I didn’t ask him here for answers. I asked him here because I didn’t want this moment to pass without a choice.”
Bennett’s brows drew together.
Laurel turned to Theo, then back to him. “You both carry something heavy, and maybe this isn’t the time to unpack it, but I wanted you to see that you’re not the only one still standing in the wreckage.”
Bennett looked at her then, not just at her, but through her words, and what he saw wasn’t pressure. Wasn’t expectation.
It was grace.
She wasn’t asking him to forgive Theo.
She was reminding him he could…if he wanted to.
He glanced at Theo. Bennett’s parents had taken him in after his parents had died in a fire when he was nine. They were raised more like brothers than cousins. That’s why his betrayal cut so damn deeply.
The man hadn’t moved, hadn’t spoken. Just stood there taking it like he knew he had no right to ask for a damn thing.
The silence pressed harder.
Finally, Bennett leaned forward, bracing his forearms on his knees.
His voice was low, rough. “Say what you came to say.”
The room stayed quiet a beat too long.
Theo looked like he might speak, then didn’t. His jaw tightened. His shoulders rose just slightly, like he was gearing up for a blow that hadn’t landed yet.
