Chapter 24: The Warning
"You're staying here," Adrian said, pulling on his coat.
"You keep telling me I'm involved," I said quietly. "Then every time something happens, you ask me to wait here while everyone else goes."
"This isn't about leaving you behind."
"Then what is it about?"
He didn't answer right away, and something in his silence told me the truth before he found the words for it. He wasn't protecting his authority. He was afraid.
"Please," he said finally. "Stay here. Where I know you're safe."
I didn't like it, but I understood it, and that was different from agreeing.
Mrs. Brooks appeared in the hallway with a small paper bag, pressing it into Adrian's hands before he could argue. He opened it without thinking and passed half the sandwich to me automatically, neither o
