More Than Meets the Eye - Page 118

Oh, Baz couldn’t even relish that he had been right about Aya being queer; his brain was too busy latching onto the speck of hope that all might not be lost.

“If all this is true, it could end Ian.And Sami,” Aya said.

“Yeah.”And it was real.He wouldn’t question Sami’s honesty again.Which meant Sami had presented himself on a silver platter to be turned in.Was this some kind of test of Baz’s loyalty?Or was it a cry for help from a drowning man?

“Could this get you back on the case?”Eevee asked.

“It could win it.I think Sami is telling me Ian never passed on our settlement offer.”He handed Aya the email.“If so, Captain Green might still be open for negotiations.”

Aya’s eyes darted across the page.She nodded.“You are one lucky bastard, Baz.”

“We can’t use this!If Ian as much as guesses where we got that information from, he’ll go after Sami.”He had literally said so in the bathroom earlier.

“He knew that when he gave it to you.”

Eevee gasped, flapping her hands.“He’s sacrificing himself for you!That’s so romantic!”

No, it wasn’t.It was stupid.Why would Sami sit on this for however long and not do anything about it?Why did he trust Baz with, essentially, a roadmap of his and Ian’s crimes?

“I don’t understand why he’d give me this.”

Eevee bounced on the balls of her feet, shaking Baz’s arm.“Isn’t it obvious?He loves you too!You need to go to him!”

“He ran away from me!Twice.”If Sami had wanted to talk, he would have knocked or let himself in.He had never shied away from that before.

“Maybe he thinks you’re mad at him for what he said.He clearly wants you to come.Look at all this!What is this if not an olive branch?”

“It’s a whole olive tree, roots and all,” Aya remarked.

Okay, fine, but, “What would I even say?‘I know you told me to get lost but—surprise!—here I am anyway, confronting you again since that worked out so well earlier’?”

“How about you start with hello and continue with, ‘Why did you give me all that dirt on you?’”Aya said.

“And your emotions!Tell him how you feel about him.”

He could see in Eevee’s eyes how she was mapping out their future, as if they would jump into each other’s arms and everything that had gone wrong would suddenly be forgotten like in some cheesy rom-com.

“It’s not that simple, Eve.”

“Oh, Baz, come on now!”Aya exclaimed.“He just handed you everything you need to win the case and put Ian away for good after you lost the hearing.Who does that if they don’t care about you?Men, I swear.”

Eevee nodded along so eagerly, he feared she’d give herself whiplash.“Listen to Aya.”

Well.Bazwasdying to get answers.Fat lot of good speculating had done him so far.

He had already lost Sami.If he could get him back… Offering his heart out again, risking it to be squashed once more, was terrifying.But not as much as wasting his chance was.

God, he hoped Eevee and Aya were right about this.

“Okay.Okay!I’m going.”

He shoved the papers back into the envelope.No one else could see them until he found out what was going on, how he could help protect Sami from the fallout of making this public.This might not be his case anymore, but it was his person whose life was on the line.Baz would be damned if he hurt him again.

Chapter twenty-eight

Baztwirledhiswristsand pressed his fingertips against each other.The cobwebs above turned the ceiling of the shabby hallway gray.He sighed out a long breath and knocked.His heart drummed in his ear—and stopped altogether at the faintthudsbehind the door.

Naija cocked one eyebrow at him and crossed her arms, her shoulder resting against the doorframe.Gray sweatpants sat low on her hips, just underneath a golden belly button piercing.The keeper of the gate to Sami’s shelter, the final hurdle on his quest for forgiveness.