“I owe you.”

Blaine glanced at his friend. “Damn right you do.”

Lucas was back at the station with Blaine and Ollie. He’d given his statement and had watched with satisfaction as Rob Grimmer was booked on charges of assault, attempted rape and a host of other crimes. The responding paramedics had determined his injuries were mostly superficial—cuts and bruises—that didn’t require medical care, so he bypassed the hospital and went straight to the county jail for processing.

Alaina was another story. By the time Blaine and Ollie had secured the scene and had Rob in cuffs, she’d regained consciousness. Lucas had ripped off his shirt and sat next to her on the floor, dabbing at the wounds on her face, trying to clean up the blood and stem the bleeding. She was incoherent, seemingly going in and out of consciousness, and he’d focused all of his attention on her, whispering words he couldn’t remember now. The paramedics had arrived and after a quick assessment, decided she was dealing with a concussion and possible head trauma and had whisked her away to the hospital. It had been almost impossible to wrench her free of Lucas’s grip until Blaine intervened.

He squatted down next to his friend. “Look at me, man,” he commanded.

Lucas could barely see him through the tears building, threatening to fall.

“She’s going to be fine,” Blaine told him. “But she needs help.”

Lucas shook his head. “No.”

“Lucas.” Blaine’s voice was sharper now. “They’ll take care of her. She’ll have the best care.”

“No, no, no.”

“Sally,” Blaine said suddenly. “Sally will take care of her. You know Sally. You trust her, right?”

Slowly, Lucas nodded. Sally was Nate’s girlfriend. Nate was Blaine’s brother and a fellow police officer. Lucas had never been particularly close to Nate, but he trusted him. And he trusted Sally.

Blaine gave a slight nod to the paramedics and then gently lifted Lucas’s hand off Alaina’s shoulder.

“She’s gonna be fine,” he repeated. “I promise.”

And he’d been right. On the way to the police station, Blaine had gotten a call. Wordlessly, he’d handed the phone to Lucas. A woman’s voice on the other end assured him that Alaina was fine. A mild concussion, no internal bleeding. They would keep her overnight for observation. She was sleeping soundly.

Sally’s voice was like a warm caress, offering him the reassurance he’d needed.

“You want more coffee?” Blaine asked.

Lucas blinked, and suddenly he was back in the present, sitting across from Blaine, the bright fluorescents making him squint.

“Sure,” he said, holding out his Styrofoam cup.

Blaine poured a generous slosh of coffee in it and Lucas sipped it, not even caring that there was no cream to tamp down the bitterness.

“Why were you there?” Blaine asked him as he took his seat.

“Where?”

“At Alaina’s. You got there after Rob.”

Lucas hesitated.

Blaine frowned.

“I was putting gas in my car,” he said. “And I ran into a woman I know.”

“I’m not following.”

“One of Noah’s former teachers,” Lucas said. “And a woman I’d sort of hooked up with a couple of weeks ago.”

Confusion flitted across Blaine’s face.

“Look, it’s a long story. But she said she’d seen Alaina earlier and told her something that wasn’t true. I…I stopped by to set the record straight.”

“About the case?”

“No, about us. She told Alaina we had a date for later in the week.” Lucas made a face. “And we most definitely did not.”

Blaine stared at him from across the desk, his lips twitching. “You really care about Alaina, don’t you?”

Lucas responded by shifting his gaze to his hands. He wasn’t ready to talk about it…mostly because he didn’t know how to put what he was feeling into words. Yes, he cared about Alaina, but he would’ve stepped in to help anyone under attack. But there was something different about his reaction, his response, when he’d seen Rob in Alaina’s home, and something different in how he felt in the aftermath.

He’d been hyperaware, hyper-reactive. He’d felt like a gladiator, like a Secret Service agent, ready to defend to the death, the consequences to his own life and his own health be damned.

The intensity of his emotions had blindsided him. Caught him completely off-guard.

And he didn’t know what to do about it, much less how to explain it to the guy sitting across from him. Because he was still trying to explain it to himself.

“I know how you feel, man.”

Lucas looked up. “What do you mean?”

“About Alaina.” He paused. “It’s the same way I feel about Rosie.”

Lucas didn’t say anything.

“It’s okay if you care about her. If you love her. You’re allowed to.”

Lucas squirmed in his chair.

Blaine smiled. “You don’t have to say it. I can read it on your face, man. You’re totally in love with her.”

Lucas frowned. Sometimes he really fucking hated that he and Blaine were so close.

Blaine chuckled, then cleared his throat. “You should go in.”

“What?”

“To the hospital,” he said.

Lucas braced himself. “To see Alaina? You think I could?”

Blaine shook his head. “Not what I meant. To get that knee checked out.”

Lucas tried to stretch his leg, then winced. “I’m fine,” he said shortly.

“Bullshit,” Blaine said.

“I’ll go in soon.”

“When?”

He didn’t care about his leg, about needing medical attention. He cared about Alaina, and he cared about the case. Since he was in the police station, he knew which one he could get immediate answers on.

“After I hear the full report.”

Blaine picked up a sheet of paper on his desk and gave it a quick once-over. “Nate’s in there with Grimmer now. Jessica went to pick up Garrett so we can question him.”

“What did Nate say when you spoke to him?”

Blaine ran a hand through his hair.

Lucas leaned in. “Don’t fucking hold out on me, man.”

“I’m not, I’m not,” he said quickly. “Look, from what I know right now, it looks like the Grimmer kid had some sort of dispute with Noah. Something about a girl.”

Lucas nodded. “Lindsay Hopkins. And I don’t think it was a dispute. I think he did something to her…”

Blaine’s expression darkened. “Guess we’ll find that out when Garrett gets his ass in here.” He paused. “The older Grimmer admitted to losing his temper at Alaina’s. Assaulting her.”

A muscle in Lucas’s jaw twitched.

“And he admitted that his son inadvertently caused Noah’s death.”

Lucas almost dropped his coffee. “What?”

Blaine gave a slight nod. “Guess he and his buddy went over there to give him a talking to, scare him a little. They thought it would be funny to string him up as a joke…make him shit his pants or something. But then they heard a noise, thought someone might be home, and they got spooked. Took off. And didn’t take him down.”

“Holy shit.” Lucas felt sick.

“Uh-huh.” Blaine’s expression was hard. “Jack Whitman was the driver. Not sure if he was in the house, too, or if he stayed with the car. We have another unit we just sent out to bring him in for questioning.”

Lucas heard him but his mind was drifting elsewhere.

Alaina had been right about Noah.

About his death.

She had been right.