Page 225 of Nyx

Nyx walks back into the room, smiling softly as he passes to put the cloth in the laundry hamper and the cleaning solution back under the sink.

I turn to face him as he exits the bathroom, but his facial expression has changed, and it automatically puts me right back on guard.

"Something is wrong," I say with my cup still close to my lips as if every drink repairs some part of me.

"Not exactly," he mutters, shoving his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans.

"Maybe if you just spit it out, we can find a solution," I say, mildly annoyed that it feels like we're beating around the bush here.

His grin returns at the tone of my voice, as if my reaction pleases him rather than annoys him the way I know it would've if I had said the same thing over a decade ago to my ex-husband.

"We left the hospital last night before you could talk to anyone about what happened," he begins.

"And you think I need a therapist?" I ask, mulling over the idea in my mind.

I've always known I need one, but moving so often hasn't made it easy. Having a good therapist is about trust, and that's hard to build in such short blocks of time.

"I wouldn't discount that idea," he tells me.

"I never took you for a therapy kind of guy."

He shrugs. "Cerberus requires it, and it isn't so bad."

"But that's not who you want me to talk to," I deduce.

He presses a palm to his chest. "I don't have an opinion about who you should talk to, but there's a federal agent here who needs the details of last night."

My hands tremble so much that I have to put my cup of coffee back on the dresser before I make another mess that would need to be cleaned up.

"Federal?" I ask. "Is this for Kincaid's favors he was going to call in?"

Nyx shakes his head. "I don't think so."

"I know Graham killed Kayla, but I don't understand how that makes it federal jurisdiction. Is it Graham? Is this guy in his pocket?"

Nyx closes the space between us when I tremble.

I look up at him, tears burning behind my eyes, and he doesn't hesitate to wrap his arms around me when I lower my head and press it to the center of his chest.

"You have the full support of Cerberus," he says, the sound coming more from his chest than hitting the air around us. "If this guy is here to try and ruin this case in any way, we'll fix it."

"But I have to meet with him?"

"Yeah," he says. "We can do a lot of things, but avoiding a federal investigation isn't a line Kincaid is going to cross right at the beginning."

"He's here now?"

"Got here half an hour ago," Nyx tells me as I step back, his hands settling on my biceps. "Kincaid has been talking with him, so we'll know the second we enter the room if the guy is on the up and up or if there's a problem."

"You'll stay in there with me?"

His eyes soften as he looks down at me. "If you want me to be."

I quickly nod. "I do."

"Ready?"

"As I'll ever be," I tell him.