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She didn’t deny it, saying, “Your disappearance made no sense Above and beyond that…”

“Yes?” he feigned a coy tone as he prompted her

“I just wanted to knohat had happened to you, Damen And to all the staff who’d attended to you” She sat up, shifted, faced him and asked point-blank, “Do you really think Garcia’s reasoning is legit?”

>He eyed her curiously “You have cause to doubt it? To doubt her?”

This wasn’t a challenge—he wanted to know her thoughts on this

She said, “It allto reconnect—she was privy to hoe interacted, even if mostly one-sided, while ere at that hospital”

“And yet…?” he queried

“I don’t have an and yet”

“Meaning you don’t want to trust anyone”

“I was shot at tonight,” she reminded him

“As though I could ever forget,” he asserted

Nikki raised her hand fro his throat “I trust you, Damen”

His gaze narrowed on her “But…?”

Her lips swept over his “I once followed this directive to strike the word but from my vocabulary, because someone claimed once you said that word, your audience ‘wouldn’t hear’ anything you said before it Which isn’t totally accurate, because, if they’re actually listening to you, they’ve heard every word before the but”

“Is there a point to this, Doc?” he asked with a quirked brow