“NICOLE EDINBURG!” JANICE announced, and a flurry of applause burst through the room.

I joined in, but my gaze was pinned to a stunned Rick, his face paler than I’d ever seen it. When he glanced toward a pair of side double doors across from Nicole’s table, I figured he’d filled his quota of all my truths. Despite my heartache, it felt good to see him squirm.

William was talking to one of the police officers with a pinched expression. He gave the officer a short nod, his hand on his holster, and followed Nicole’s trek to the stage with narrowed eyes.

I still didn’t know what the hell was happening. I pressed toward the stage and Nicole, my protective hackles raised, but a light stirring in the air behind me slowed my steps. A recognizable heat scoured the room before it sizzled up the back of my neck, lifting every hair with it. I knew who it was without even looking, but I turned my head anyway.

Sam’s cobalt blue gaze connected with mine from near the middle of the room around where my table stood. Strands of hair hung untamed in his face, almost hiding the wild look behind his eyes. His shoulders rose and fell beneath his jacket like he’d sprinted here away from a pack of hungry wolves. As soon as he saw me, he plowed people over in my direction.

“Paige!” His mouth moved but his voice was lost in raucous applause.

Even if I could have formed a coherent thought to put into words, he wouldn’t be able to hear me.

The microphone hummed a burst of feedback, but it was Janice’s next few words that hushed the room into silence. “Officers, what can we do for you?”

Everyone turned, following Janice’s pointed gaze, to the three officers gliding closer and closer behind Sam. Sam, who was just seconds from my side, froze, his eyes falling shut. He rolled his lips together as if to contain his breaths, as if another inhale would put a target on his back. As if the police were looking for him. Were they?

“Sam?” I whispered when he stood a foot away, because I needed to hear him confirm it.

His eyes popped open, bright red and full of such sadness, and a terrible, icy ache swelled inside my rib cage. The part of his black T-shirt not hidden by his leather jacket clung to his chest as if it were wet, and something red speckled the thighs of his jeans. Was that blood?

“Sam Cleary,” one of the officers shouted. “We’re looking for Sam Cleary.”

“Why?” I asked, and I couldn’t be sure whether I was addressing the policeman or Sam.

But in the silence, my voice carried, and heads turned. Even though my gaze was locked with Sam’s, I still saw it out of the corner of my eye. Saw one of the officers sneaking up behind him and yanking his hands behind his back.

All of it happened so fast, and then the room burst into pandemonium. The crowd immediately surrounding us shouted startled cries and backed away. Rick bounded behind my table. Sam kicked at the cop before the cuffs bound him. He leaped over the table and punched Rick in the face.

A hand squeezed my wrist with a death grip, and Charlotte maneuvered herself so she faced my side in a protective stance, her cane slanted in front of me.

I didn’t need anyone’s protection, though. I needed fucking answers, and the one man who could give me those fought free of another officer, lunged toward me, and kicked Charlotte’s cane out of the way. He cupped my cheeks in the palms of his hands. My eyes filled with tears at the tortured look in his.

“Paige,” he said in a rush, his voice hitching, “let me explain. I should’ve explained everything to you before. I was being blackmailed by a drug—”

A gun clicked behind him. Tears spilled down my cheeks and blurred the face of a stranger I thought I’d known. Prostitution? Blackmail? Drugs? He was keeping those types of secrets from me even after I’d shared all of mine?

“Hands on your head,” the policeman barked. “Slowly.”

His gaze tracked my tears, a line of sorrow stitching his eyebrows together, and he thumbed many of them away with a gentle touch. “Please believe me,” he whispered, then did as the officer ordered. “I love you, Paige.”

I love you. Hours ago, I could have easily said it back to him. I’d trusted him. The fact that I didn’t even know this man swamped my veins with heated betrayal. But now, putting the truth out in the open, like this, felt like the ultimate slap to my face.

One of the policemen yanked his hands behind his back again, and the sharp click of handcuffs followed.

Sam’s gaze never wavered from mine, searching for something I couldn’t give him. “I’ve always loved you. I needed to tell you that much.”

He loved me, but he didn’t respect me, didn’t trust me enough to tell me the truth, whatever that was exactly. I was all too familiar with that kind of man, the kind who lied, the kind who were complete strangers. Who was this man who had just told me he loved me?

A firm resolve settled into the pit of my stomach, and just before I looked away, he must have seen my thoughts stamped in the rigid lines of my face because he said my name in a soft plea.

“Get away from me,” I said, my voice as shaky as the rest of my body.

The officers read him his rights and steered him out of the room, but I hardly glanced at his retreating figure. A collective exhale sighed from the crowd once he was gone.

Charlotte appeared at my side again, her face flushed with anger and her mouth moving, but too many things. Too many things were happening all at once, and I desperately wanted the earth to stop spinning for just one second. One second to curl my hands around my cracked heart and breathe.