Samantha’s POV
Voight’s muttering in my kitchen was the first thing I heard.
Not the coffee machine.
Not the clinking of mugs.
His voice.
Low. Gravelly. Irritated at an appliance that had done nothing wrong.
I pushed the blanket off and sat up slowly. My head still throbbed, but the dizziness had faded. The morning light slipped through the blinds, soft and warm.
Voight turned at the sound.
“You’re awake,” he said.
“Barely.”
He walked over, handed me a mug, and sat on the edge of the coffee table — close enough that our knees brushed.
“You should still be resting,” he said.
“You should still be in a hospital bed.”
He huffed a laugh. “Not happening.”
“I didn’t think so.”
He stared at me again — that same look from last night, the one everyone kept whispering about. The one he didn’t seem aware he was doing.
“You feeling any better?” he asked.
“Head hurts. Body hurts. Ego hurts.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Ego?”
“I got kidnapped. Not exactly my best day.”
He gave a small, crooked smile. “You handled it better than most.”
“Is that your way of saying I’m tough?”
“It’s my way of saying you scared the hell out of me.”
I blinked. “You keep saying that.”
“Because it keeps being true.”
I sipped my coffee to hide the way my stomach flipped.
---
Voight’s POV
She looked better this morning — still pale, still tired, but alive. Talking. Smirking. Giving me attitude.
It was ridiculous how relieved that made me.
“You didn’t have to stay,” she said softly.
“I know.”
“But you did.”
“Yeah.”
She tilted her head. “Why?”
I didn’t answer right away.
Because I didn’t have an answer that made sense.
Because I didn’t want to say the wrong thing.
Because I wasn’t sure what the right thing even was.
So I went with the truth.
“You shouldn’t have been alone,” I said. “Not after everything.”
She smiled — small, warm, knowing.
“You’re staring again,” she teased.
I blinked. “No, I’m not.”
“You are.”
“I’m checking on you.”
“Uh‑huh.”
She leaned back against the couch, crossing her arms like she’d just won something.
“You know,” she said, “if you keep staring at me like that, people are going to talk.”
“They already are.”
YOU ARE READING
The New Detective
Mistério / SuspenseA new detective joins intelligence and she isn't what anyone expected will she collide with Voight or will something more happen
