We left Elias's estate a little past midnight, and I noticed the change in Killian the moment we stepped outside his eyes sweeping the treeline, the parked cars, the shadows between streetlamps, with a wariness that hadn't been there a week ago.
"You're doing it too," I said quietly, sliding into the car. "Checking every corner."
"I should have been doing it from the beginning." He pulled out of the gate, knuckles pale against the wheel. "I let myself believe the danger was abstract. Rumors, old business rivals, nothing that would actually reach you." His jaw tightened. "I was wrong. Whoever's behind Hartwell has already proven they'll come after you directly, and now we know they killed my mother to protect the exact same secret."
"Killian." I reached over, resting my hand against his
