"I have been sitting in this chair for an hour."
"I know. I just, I was thinking."
The matebond spiked. Guilt. Right on schedule. Hale felt it land in his chest like a stone dropped from a height.
He kept his voice even. "Where were you?"
"Checking on Gav."
She said it immediately. Without hesitation. Without the pause that would have indicated deception. She said it because it was true, and the truth was the most damning piece of evidence in Hale's file, because a woman hiding an affair would have lied, and Elara was telling the truth, which meant whatever she was feeling for Gavriel Sterling was genuine enough that she saw no reason to hide the visits.
She was hiding the reason. She was telling the truth about the destination.
"How is he?" Hale asked, and his voice was so steady it frightened him, because the steadiness was discipline and the discipline was the only thing keeping his wolf from howling.
