Chapter 476: Tuesday. CIA Safe House, London, United Kingdom.

SILAS RESISTED THE URGE to follow Ekko down the hall. She was just going to the bathroom. They were leaving in minutes. She'd be fine. Still, he couldn't silence this urge that told him to go to her. Stay with her just in case someone else tried to snatch her from him.

God, he was pathetic.

His mind rejected that thought no sooner than it had formed.

This thing with her, this partnership, it wasn't pathetic. It was special. He just didn't know what to do about it.

"How do the stitches feel?" Paxton leaned on the counter across from him and twisted the top off a water bottle.

Silas glanced back at his best friend and partner. "Fine. You do good work, nerd."

Paxton studied Silas. It was a calculating look, parsing Silas down to his parts and weighing him. In the very beginning when they'd met, Silas hadn't liked that look. It had made him uneasy, which had driven him to poke at the then silent kid. That poking had turned into an initial dislike, but they'd gotten over it. Even that