After Derek got on the elevator and the doors closed, I stood out in the hallway for a couple minutes processing everything that had happened.

I’d had sex with a man who should have sent me running scared in the other direction. I’d let him in and been vulnerable with him. And he’d shared some deep, dark secrets of his own that should have frightened me even more, but they hadn’t. They’d only drawn me to him even more like a moth to the light, intrigued by the brightness and oblivious to the burn.

I pressed my back to the door and sighed.

I was in big trouble.

I was also in for a serious scolding when I went back inside, and I needed to get myself in the right frame of mind to face Penny’s wrath. She was going to lay into me for this one for sure, and I couldn’t blame her for it. Because she was right. Just like every other time. She was right. There was nothing I could say to defend my actions.

Well. There was one thing I could say, but it was completely insane.

I heard Penny’s footsteps pounding down the hall on the other side of the door, and I pushed myself off it right before she yanked it open. She was wearing her blue pajamas, and her hair was up in a bun. She gave me a wild look and peered behind me down the hall, looking for Derek.

I slipped by her and went inside. “He’s gone, Penny.”

She whirled around and slammed the door.

I went to the stove and filled the kettle with hot water. As it filled, I glanced over my shoulder at her. “I know everything you’re thinking. Trust me. I know. I thought all the same things.”

“And yet you still fucked him.”

“Can you please stop saying that?” I pleaded as I put the kettle on the stove and turned on the gas element. The blue flame licked the bottom of the kettle, and I put my back against the counter and crossed my arms. “You might not believe me, but there was more than just sex last night. We talked.”

“Oh, you did? How romantic!” Her sarcasm was thick.

I sighed and hung my head. “Is there anything I can say to get you off my back about this? I know how it looks from your side of things, okay? I get it. But there’s more to him than just his gang ties, and if you spent a little time with him without attacking him, you might be able to see that.”

Penny blew a strand of hair off her face. “I highly doubt that. I’m a good judge of character, and he’s easy to pin down. He’s mean. And dangerous. And everything you don’t need in your life right now. Wouldn’t you rather have a nice guy with a reliable job and, you know, fewer scars?”

“Derek is a nice guy.”

Penny snorted.

“He is. You don’t know him. Remember how you hated that everyone used to judge you in high school because you wore all black and buckled boots and had purple hair?”

“That’s different,” Penny said.

“It’s really not.”

“I wasn’t fighting criminals in back alleys, Evie.”

She had me there. The kettle started boiling. I grabbed a paisley patterned mug from Penny’s cupboard and grabbed a tea bag. “Do you want tea?” I offered. Penny shook her head, so I dropped the tea bag into the mug and then poured the hot water over it. I turned off the stove and set the kettle down on a cool element before turning back to my friend. “I care about him.”

“What?”

“I do. I can’t explain, but I do. I think he cares about me too.”

“Evie—”

“I know,” I said sharply, cutting her off. “I know, okay? To be honest, I’m getting pretty sick and tired of everyone thinking they know what’s best for me. I know you have good intentions, and you just don’t want me to get hurt. But I can make my own decisions. This is something I’m choosing on my own. I care about him. I trust him, and I know he wouldn’t ever hurt me. I’m done justifying my decision, okay?”

Penny looked at her feet. I wondered if she was ashamed. Then, she met my eye again and nodded solemnly. “Okay. It just scares me. I can’t help it.”

“I know, Pen.” I went to her and held her shoulders. “But you trust me, don’t you?”

Penny nodded. “Of course, I do.”

I smiled and pulled her in for a hug. “I’m sorry for getting upset. I love you. You just have to leave this one alone. I’ll be safe. I promise.”

Penny hugged me back and buried her face in my shoulder. “I love you too. Just be careful, okay? Even if he’s a good one, he might be surrounded by guys who are bad. You hear what I’m saying?”

“I do,” I whispered.

I hated to admit it, but it had never occurred to me that I was putting myself at risk by being close to Derek simply because of the crowds he hung around with. Sure, The Hand was probably a rare exception, but I would be a fool to overlook the glaring fact that somehow, Derek and his MC had gotten tangled up with a guy like him. There had been crossover at one point, and that sort of thing probably happened more often than not to Derek and men like him.

It sucked to realize that, and it was all I could think about as I headed to work later that afternoon. I dreaded seeing Bruce again after everything that had happened at The Stokes the night before.

When I walked in, I stopped short. The place was still in disarray. A clean-up crew had been called in, and Bruce himself was wandering around, moving tables an inch to the left and then back to the right to try to make it look like two men hadn’t tried to kill each other in here twelve hours ago. It wasn’t really working.

I bit my bottom lip and walked up to him. I held my hands tightly together in front of myself when he looked up at me. He didn’t look angry. If anything, he looked relieved to see me. “Hey, Evelyn. How are you holding up?”

“Good. Better than expected. How are you?”

He nodded and scratched the back of his neck as he looked around his lounge. “I’ve been better. It’s going to take a lot of work to get this place back in shape to be open to the public again.”

“We’re closed?”

He nodded once more but didn’t look at me. He only had eyes for the destruction. “Yeah. Just for a night or two. I was going to call you and tell you to take the night off, but there are two cops over at the bar. They want to speak to you.” He pointed his chin to the bar behind me.

I turned around.

There were a man and a woman sitting at the bar, sipping lemon waters. They were dressed in navy blazers and black suit pants. I saw the flash of a gold badge on the hip of the female cop, and as I stared at her, she looked back over her shoulder like she knew I was staring. She had dark hair and a smile that was much warmer than I’d expected to see on a cop.

She slid off her barstool and approached. When she extended her hand for me to shake, her grip was firm. “Hello, you must be Evelyn East?”

I nodded. “Yeah. That’s me.”

“I’m a detective with the NYPD. You can call me Dani. This is my partner, Tom.”

Tom, a tall sandy blond-haired cop, shook my hand as well. “Hey, Evelyn.”

“Hi,” I said nervously. I’d never spoken to cops before. Not unless you counted the time an officer came to my elementary school and let kids sit shotgun while he flicked on the lights and the sirens.

Dani clasped her hands in front of her. “We don’t want to take up much of your time, Evelyn. This is just routine stuff. Do you have a minute for us to ask you some questions?”

“Yes, of course,” I said hurriedly. Nobody said no to a detective, right? At least no goody-goodies like me did.

Dani motioned for me to walk forward to an empty table and chairs. She followed me, and the three of us took a seat. Dani crossed one leg over the other and fixed me with another one of her warm smiles before the interview started. “Could you tell us what happened last night in your own words, Miss East?”

I recounted the events of the evening as thoroughly as I was able. I had to pause a lot to collect my words, but the police were incredibly patient with me. I said “um” at least a hundred times, and my lips were dry from licking them anxiously as I told the story by the time I came to the end. Which was not the true end.

“Then, I hit him with the fire extinguisher,” I said.

Dani blinked at me and glanced at Tom. They both looked amused. “You hit him?” Dani asked.

I nodded. “I felt like I didn’t really have a choice. Derek was in trouble, and there was no one else around to help him. So … I did.”

Dani’s eyebrows crept upward, and I had the impression she was impressed. It felt good to have a woman like her appreciate what I did. I couldn’t explain it, but I wanted her to like me. I wanted her to see me as someone who was strong and could handle herself. Maybe because I was finally starting to feel that way myself.

Tom cleared his throat. “I trust you realize the danger you were putting yourself in by doing that, Miss East. This man is no petty criminal. He’s killed people.”

I grimaced. “Yeah. I only thought about that part of things after I hit him. It was more of a reflex than anything.”

“A fighter, not a flighter,” Dani mused.

“Apparently,” I said, feeling the heat in my cheeks.

“And after you hit him,” Tom said, “then what happened?”

“Um,” I stammered for the hundred and first time. I raked my fingers through my hair. Nervous sweat had broken out on the base of my neck. “Derek left. And so did I. I went home to my roommate and showered and went to bed. I was exhausted after everything that had happened. I probably shouldn’t have driven myself home, in hindsight.” I had no clue how I managed to lie through my teeth to a detective who was looking at me like she knew I was full of shit.

Dani got to her feet, and Tom followed. It was obvious she was the one calling the shots in their duo. She smiled down at me. “Thank you for taking the time to talk to us. If we need anything else from you, will it be all right if we reach out?”

“Yeah. Of course. That’s fine.”

“Very good. Have a good rest of your evening, Miss East. Try not to attack anyone with a fire extinguisher.” Dani winked, and then the two of them left.

I must have been the only person who did not find the whole fire extinguisher situation humorous. I suppose if I’d told Penny, she wouldn’t have thought it was funny either, but telling her would be admitting I’d been part of a battle for someone’s life. I wasn’t going to worry her with that. She was already stressed out enough about the whole Derek situation without me piling more shit on her.

After Dani and Tom left, Bruce came over and sat down across from me. “Did that go okay?”

I nodded. “Yeah. It was fine. They just wanted to know what happened out here from my perspective.”

Bruce nodded. Then, he took a big breath. “What the hell did happen out here, Evelyn? It looks like two gorillas tried to kill each other.”

He wasn’t far off. “Yeah. It was messy.”

“I have to hire someone to clean blood out of the carpet.”

“Sorry.”

Bruce rubbed his hands down his thighs but chuckled. “It’s not your fault. I was really worried about you when I came in and saw this fucking mess. I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Thanks, Bruce. I’m good. I can help you get this place back in order. Whatever you need.”

“Nah.” He waved me off. “You go on home. I can handle all this. I have some guys coming in who helped me when I first bought this place and did the renovations. They’ll have her looking spick-and-span in no time. I wanted new carpet anyway.”

“Can I give you some advice?” I asked as I stood and adjusted the shoulder strap of my purse.

Bruce looked up at me. “Sure.”

“Ditch the carpet altogether? Go with hardwood or something. Something easy to clean up spills and other … messes. Besides, carpet is outdated. It’s the only thing keeping this place from looking like a really modern establishment.”

Bruce grinned and got to his feet. “You know. I might just do that. Now, get out of here before I put you to work.”

I smiled and left, but I didn’t go home. Penny was at work, and I had no interest in being there alone. Instead, I went to the mall where I sat with a cup of coffee and compulsively checked my phone for messages or a call from Derek. One never came. So I treated myself to a new set of pajamas. A silky, lacy, pretty set with no mermaids on them.

Just in case.