“That’s one hell of a way to start the new year.”

“Clay!” I tried to get up, but a glare from Jalen kept me seated. He’d been fussing over me the whole time, and I knew it’d eventually get annoying, but right now, it was endearing.

My friend was pale as he came over to me and pulled me into a hug. To my surprise, Jalen didn’t say a word. When Clay finally pulled away, he held out a hand to my boyfriend.

“I was an ass.”

“Yes, you were,” Jalen agreed, but he shook Clay’s hand.

“Glad to see you two are safe,” Agent Matthews said as he came into the room. “Are you feeling up to giving your statements?”

“Can’t it wait?” Jalen asked. “She’s had a rough morning.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “My face is still numb, and I’d rather do it before the medicine wears off, and it hurts to talk.”

The cut I’d received wasn’t too deep, but it ran from my chin, across my cheek, ending just below the corner of my right eye. Jalen had insisted on a plastic surgeon being called in to take care of it, and I’d been told it probably wouldn’t scar, or at least not badly. Oddly enough, I wasn’t concerned. The people I loved wouldn’t reject me because of a new scar, and that was the only thing that mattered to me.

“I gave my statement to the officers out there,” Jalen said.

“The doctor kicked him out because he yelled at her when I winced during the assessment,” I said with a half-smile.

“I apologized,” he said as he reached for my hand.

“Just tell us in your own words what happened.” Agent Matthews sounded amused by the exchange.

I took a moment to gather my thoughts. I wanted to be thorough but as unemotional as possible. What I’d done should have been cut-and-dry, but if I wasn’t clear about anything, I could end up in trouble.

“Jalen and I were in bed when the doorbell rang. He went downstairs to see who it was.” It wasn’t any easier to tell it than it had been to live it. I squeezed Jalen’s hand tighter with each minute. When I finally reached the end, my body shook, but my voice was steady. “That’s when we called for an ambulance.”

“Shit, Rona.” Clay put his hand on my shoulder. “You shouldn’t have had to do that. We should’ve caught him before he got to you.”

“Yes, you should have,” Jalen said.

“J,” I warned.

“What about your security?” Clay asked Jalen. “The whole reason I agreed to let Rona stay with you was because I thought you could keep her safe.”

“Hold up.” I stuck my hand between the two of them. “If the two of you keep talking about me like I’m not here, you’re both going to need a doctor to reattach your balls. Got it?”

Jalen raised an eyebrow. “I thought you liked my balls where they were.”

I scowled a warning. “I like being treated like a person more.”

He leaned over and kissed my forehead. “I’m sorry. You should be the one to yell at Clay.”

“I’m not going to yell at either one of you,” I said. “Everyone’s made mistakes. We’re not going to debate who did or didn’t do worse.”

They were both silent for a moment, then nodded.

“I’ll be meeting with my security people to see what went wrong,” Jalen said. “Just because your father’s not a danger anymore doesn’t mean you’re safe. There’s still whoever killed Serge.”

“Actually, there’s not,” Agent Matthews interjected as he came into the room. “Part of the reason we think your father was able to get past us was because we had to pull men off looking for Willis to help with the trafficking case. We caught a huge break.”

Clay picked up from there. “The coroner found a brand on Serge’s body, made post-mortem. Turns out, it was a signature used by his killer. We were able to use it to connect him to other murders, and after that, things fell into place. Dozens of our agents are out there right now, making arrests, conducting raids. The men we arrested before are making as many deals as they can. No one has anything to gain by coming after you.”

“Obviously, we’re going to encourage you to lay low for a couple weeks until we finish cleaning things up,” Agent Matthews said. “Do you have somewhere you can do that?”

“I think I can find somewhere,” Jalen said. “Are we allowed to leave the area?”

“Even Elise is saying you didn’t intend to kill him,” Agent Matthews said to me. “Actually, she said you were trying to stop him from hurting her and her baby.”

Clay looked at me with surprise. “You saved Elise?”

“I wasn’t going to let him hurt anyone else,” I said softly. “No matter how much she pisses me off.”

“Oh, I almost forgot.” Agent Matthews reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. “She gave me this to give to you, Jalen. I’m guessing it means something to you.”

Jalen took the paper, read it, then smiled. “It’s the official conception window. A week before I slept with her. The baby can’t be mine.”

Relief washed through me. Adeline’s visit had made me certain that Jalen wasn’t the baby’s father, but this meant we were done with Elise’s games.

“She wrote a note on it too,” he said. “You were right. We used a condom. I’ll sign the papers.”

“No apology,” I said with a shrug. “But on the plus side, you’re going to get a divorce.”

“I didn’t want to get it this way,” Jalen said.

For the first time, I heard something new in his voice. Something hard. And I wasn’t the only one who heard it.

“We’re going to talk to the cops,” Agent Matthews said. “And then we’ve got paperwork piling up back at the office. We’re going to be busy for a while with this case.”

Clay leaned over and gave me a quick hug. “If you need me, all you have to do is call.”

I nodded. “I know.” I waited until they left before I asked Jalen what was wrong.

He stared at me. “You could’ve died today. Why did you risk yourself for Elise? Dammit, Rona!”

“Are you mad at me for saving her life? Really?”

He cupped my face in his hands, careful to keep his fingers off my wound. “I can’t lose you. Don’t you understand that yet? Losing you would kill me.”

I curled my fingers in his shirt. “And I couldn’t have lived with myself if he hurt someone else when I could’ve stopped him.”

Jalen rested his forehead on mine. “Please, sweetheart, don’t ever scare me like that again.”

“Ever?” I echoed. “That sounds an awful lot like a commitment.”

He smiled. “One step at a time, right?”

I wanted to enjoy this moment, but there was one thing I had to know before I could. “When you heard Elise was pregnant, was it the baby you didn’t want, or was it just her?”

He raised his head but didn’t step away. “You want to know if I want kids?”

I nodded.

His eyes skimmed down to my belly. “Are you–”

“No, but if we’re looking to the future, it’s something we should talk about.”

He smiled and kissed the tip of my nose. “I want to be a father someday, but only if you’re the mother.”

I closed my eyes and finally let myself feel all the hope I’d been pushing down for so long. I was going to have a family.

No, I amended. I already had a family. It was just going to get bigger someday.