“No.”

Cam stared at Alex. “What?”

“No.” His voice was barely a whisper.

She didn’t know whether to scream or cry when she stumbled upon him in the garage.

Full-blown panic had seized her the minute she’d noticed the empty bedroom. This was soon replaced by anger and then fear as she searched the back and side yards, desperate to find him. She’d been seconds away from calling the station when something made her glance toward the Freehy’s house. It had been on the market for a few months, the price dropping every few weeks because they’d already moved to Colorado and were desperate to get it sold. She’d heard through the grapevine that Alaina Dans was waiting to pounce as soon as it hit a price she was willing to pay. But until then, it stood empty. Waiting.

Cam knew an empty house offered a pretty decent place to hide.

She’d sprinted down the street, veering immediately toward the backyard and the garage. If it had been her on the run, that was where she would go. Her pulse quickened when she saw the smashed-in window.

Bingo.

Alex let out a soft moan.

“You can’t stay here,” she said.

“You have to leave,” he rasped. “Not safe.”

His words sent a shiver down her spine but she tried to ignore it. “You’re not safe here, either. In fact, you’re trespassing. And you vandalized this property.”

He acknowledged this with a simple nod.

“But right now, we need to get you back in bed and we need to get the bleeding stopped.” Her eyes drifted to his leg and she shuddered. It looked bad. Really bad.

“This was a mistake,” he mumbled.

“Running away from the house?” She leaned down. She wasn’t sure how she was going to get him off the floor but she had to try something. “No shit.”

“No.” He swallowed. “Coming here.”

“We can debate that later,” she told him. “Right now we need to get back to the house.”

“No. I can’t stay.”

“You don’t have a choice.”

He glared at her.

“It’s either my house or the hospital,” she told him. “Take it or leave it.”

He opened his mouth to speak but she held her hand up. “I’m not arguing with you.”

She sounded no-nonsense, but Cam’s insides were quaking. Alex was clearly terrified, enough so that he’d escaped through her bedroom window and hobbled down the street despite his injuries.

And he wasn’t just worried about his own safety. If anything, it seemed as though he was more worried about her and keeping her out of harm’s way.

Cam knew the smart thing to do would be to call the station. Hell, she could even just call Nate if she wanted to keep things a little more under wraps. Barring that, the next best thing would be to call an ambulance or at least get Alex to the hospital.

But she knew if she did either of those things, she wouldn’t get the one thing she was still looking for.

Answers.

Alex Castillo had stormed back into her life for a reason.

And she still didn’t know why.

“Can you stand?” she asked.

He closed his eyes in response.

“Let me get you back to the house,” she said, gentling her tone. “Clean up your leg. We can talk after.”

“Not safe…”

“It is safe,” she told him. “I promise.”

He cast a doubtful look at her.

“The guy at the door was a salesman,” she said. “He was trying to sell me a security system. I actually thought about buying it. You know, seeing how easy it was for you to break into my house…”

Her attempt at humor seemed to work. Something flickered in his eyes and she saw the taut muscles in his neck relax a little.

“We need to get out of this garage.” She held out her hand. “Do you think you can stand?”

He didn’t answer right away and Cam had the sinking feeling that he was going to refuse. But then he sighed and nodded, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

They’d gotten over the first hurdle.

It took all of Cam’s strength to help Alex up off the floor, and she was filled with second thoughts as his face contorted with pain. To his credit, though, he didn’t moan or whimper, just bit his lip as he got to his feet. He swayed briefly before finding his footing.

“Good,” she said encouragingly, offering a smile to go along with it. “Now let’s try walking.”

He stayed still.

“There’s no one out there.” She wasn’t sure, but she thought that might be the reason for his hesitancy. “I promise.”

Apparently, her word was good enough, because he shuffled one foot forward, and then the other. Cam put her arm around his waist, grateful the long-sleeved shirt she was wearing prevented skin-on-skin contact with him, and helped guide him out the door.

It took them several minutes to walk the short distance back to Cam’s house. By some miracle, none of her neighbors were outside. She chalked it up to simple dumb luck.

Alex collapsed on the bed as soon as they made their way into the room. His calf was now coated with blood, and Cam immediately regretted her decision to bring him back to the house.

“Your leg is bad,” she said. She tucked towels underneath it to keep the blood off the sheets.

His eyes were closed, his facial muscles taut, but he managed a shake of his head.

She frowned. “You’re bleeding through the gauze.”

“My leg is fine,” he murmured. “It just needs to be rewrapped. I need to stay off it.”

She started to respond but he kept talking.

“My ribs are another story.”

She immediately shifted her gaze to his chest. His breaths were coming out short and shallow. “Are they broken?”

“I don’t know.”

Cam stared at his ribs, as if doing so long enough might offer X-ray vision or something.

But nothing happened.

“We need to find out just how injured you are,” she said.

Alex didn’t disagree. In fact, he didn’t say anything. But she knew if she mentioned going to a hospital or calling an ambulance, he’d freak.

She chewed her lip and thought for a minute.

There was one person she could call who would absolutely know what to do.

One person who would help, even if he voiced concerns.

Even if he flat-out told her she was making a poor choice in helping Alex.

Her brother.