My chest heaves up and down, and the falls feel like they are closing in.
I don’t know what’s happening?—
“Hey,” Shaw says suddenly, appearing directly in front of me with a hand on my shoulder. “Breathe.”
I stare at her.
She is so close and yet so far away.
My breathing is flat and fast.
“Breathe in with me,” she says, and breathes in deeply. “And out.”
I can’t.
Everything in me tingles.
I need to run.
Run far away.
Only I can’t.
Because I am caged.
“In,” she says again. “And out.”
When she says it a third time, it finally reaches me, and I breathe in. And out. Following her lead.
It takes ages, where we just stand there and breathe.
I have become more aware of my surroundings again. The room I am in. The smell of it. The touch of her hand on my arm. And she, as a person, stares into my eyes and I into hers. She looks tired, and her eyes—they have a presence. They are hazel; a green base and a brown crown around the iris. Her longer, wavy blond hair brings the color out even more.
I have never registered her this close.
“Sit down,” she says again.
“Tell me you got the hat,” I whisper as I sit down.
“We arrived thirty-five minutes after you gave me the intel with a tactical team of eight at the address,” she begins.
My body screams to finally tell me the only thing that mattered.
“We did not find Hedda present, but what we did find were numerous artifacts and relics we have on our list of stolen goods. However?—“
“Did you find Lincoln’s hat?” I blurt out.
“We did not find the hat that was supposed to be in our evidence storage, and I believe it was the object you went for tonight.”
I say nothing.
If Hedda wasn’t there?—
And the hat wasn’t there?—
She’ll broker it?—
And I?—