“I’m fine,” Luke said. “The cops have sweated me before, Em. It’s no big deal.”

“Are you kidding me?” Emily said, her voice high in exasperation. “They interviewed you for three hours.”

Luke cracked a beer open and shrugged. “Your mother sweated me in that same interview room a few months ago,” he said. “Or don’t you remember?”

“Luke, they raided the shop.”

“Which your mother did a few months ago, too.” Luke took a long swig of his beer. He looked a little tired, and he was drinking a beer at one in the afternoon, but he genuinely wasn’t worried. “I’m a Riggs. I’m used to cops assuming I’m up to something.”

We were in the kitchen of the Riggs house. Like the outside of the house, the inside showed a place that had long been neglected but was starting to get some attention. The cups were mismatched, but the floor and counters were clean. There was a stack of mail on the table, but there was also a tray with a hand-labeled sticker: Important Bills!!! It wasn’t perfect, but someone cared, I could tell.

Emily was pacing the linoleum, freaking out. I gathered that Emily wasn’t the quiet, stoic type. She was wearing jeans and a snug Tigers T-shirt that showed the shape of her breasts, a visual that Luke was obviously watching as he sipped his beer.

“Except you were up to something,” Emily said. “You burned that stupid car.”

Luke snorted. “The Thunderbird is nothing. So a few cars caught fire in Casey’s junkyard, so what? Casey didn’t see a damned thing.”

Sitting at the kitchen table, I felt my stomach turn again. I thought I might throw up. Luke had told me the story about finding the coke, about getting rid of it. Jace must have been sick with worry when he found it, but he’d never let on to me. Of course he hadn’t, because Jace was used to facing everything alone. Whether it was informing on his father’s dirty business or finding coke stashed in the first car he got after getting out of prison. Jesus, Jace, what must you have been feeling? Why didn’t you tell me?

I had texted Jace ten times, twenty. Called over and over. His phone was off.

It was probably for the best that he hadn’t told me about the problems he was having. It was my ex-boyfriend, after all, who was determined to see him arrested or dead.

It’s easier if they just go, Kyle had said. So we arranged some encouragement.

I said, “It was a setup. The whole coke thing. The drugs were planted by the Westlake PD.”

“You’re fucking right they were,” Luke said. “I figured that out as soon as they got me in the station. We were idiots not to figure it out sooner.”

Emily glared at Luke. “You’re saying that my mother had cocaine planted in Jace’s car? I swear to God, you are never getting laid again.”

“No,” Luke said calmly. Emily’s freak-out seemed to be having no effect on him, like it was an everyday thing. “Nora wouldn’t do that, but she isn’t the only cop on the force. The cops always despised Dad, and the rest of us by default. Your mother felt the same until she sweated me last time and found out that I’m not so bad.”

“That’s just a theory!” Emily cried.

“It isn’t a theory,” I said. “My ex practically admitted it. He probably told Jace the same thing when he pulled him over. Which means that Jace knows that the Westlake PD is after him along with the criminals he informed on for all those years.” I looked down at the table, my gaze taking nothing in. “This is all my fault. All of it.”

Luke put his beer down and looked at me. “It wouldn’t have mattered,” he said.

“What?” I asked.

“If you’d told Jace about Officer Fuckface. It wouldn’t have mattered to him.” He shook his head. “I may have been away for eight years, but I know Jace. He’s quiet but he’s fierce. When he’s set on something, he’s fucking set on it, come hell or high water. And he’s never been set on a woman the way he’s set on you.”

You don’t know the half of it, I thought. He never had a woman at all before me. But that was Jace’s business, and the last thing I was going to do was spill it to his brothers. “It’s stupid,” I said. “I should have warned him. But I was terrified I would lose him.”

“You wouldn’t have lost him,” Luke said. “Not Jace.”

“Well, I’ve lost him now,” I said, still sick to my stomach.

Luke looked thoughtful. “I doubt it.” A ringtone rang out, and all three of us tensed. It was Luke’s phone. “Ryan,” he said when he looked at the number. Then he answered. “What’s up?”

There was a minute of talking on the other end. “No,” Luke said. Then, “No. Oh, really?” He sighed. “Well, shit. I should have guessed. Got it. Bye.” He hung up. “Ryan doesn’t know where Jace is either, but guess who isn’t answering his fucking phone? Our oldest brother, Dexter Riggs.”

Emily had stopped pacing. “Dex?” she said. “Jace went to see Dex?”

I straightened. “What?” I asked them. “What does that mean?” I didn’t know Dex. I didn’t know Ryan, either. But Luke and Emily looked genuinely alarmed. “Is there something wrong with Dex?”

“That’s a complicated question,” Emily said.

“Yes,” Luke said. “Dex is crazy.”

“He’s also in Detroit,” Emily said. “Or at least, he’s supposed to be.”

I opened my mouth to say something. I didn’t know what. Maybe to say that Jace wasn’t with Dex. That Jace had possibly just gone into hiding. He was smart and sensible, and the Riggs brothers weren’t close. Jace wouldn’t take this into his own hands and do anything crazy. That wasn’t his way.

Then my phone pinged with a text, and I read it. It was Jace. He must have turned his phone on.

Tell me something true, he wrote.

Everything went away. The house, Luke and Emily, the world around me. There was just him and me.

I didn’t even hesitate. I typed, You’re beautiful.

There was a second’s pause, then the dots moved. Tara. I’m not.

You don’t see what I see, I wrote. It’s the truth. Your turn.

You stole mine, Jace, wrote, but I’ll try again. The reason I picked a fight with you in our first session was because I knew I couldn’t have you, and I couldn’t stand it. So I was a jerk. If you hated me, I thought it would be easier. It was the only thing I could think of to do.

My throat was thick. The words themselves were pure Jace, but I felt panic rising in my chest. It didn’t work, I wrote. I woke up the next morning having a sex dream about you.

Another pause, and the dots moved again. I didn’t know that, Jace wrote. I like it.

Why does this sound so strangely final?

Is it? Jace wrote. I don’t want it to be.

Come back, I wrote. We’ll figure this out. We’ll figure everything out. In case you hadn’t clued in, I’m in love with you.

I don’t deserve that, but I’ll take it. And I’m trying my best to come back. But I have to turn my phone off now.

“No,” I said out loud. I typed furiously. Don’t you dare. CALL ME.

But he was already gone, I knew it.

I looked up and saw Luke and Emily watching me. How long had they been standing there? What had they seen, what had they said that I hadn’t heard? I had no idea.

“He’s doing something crazy,” I said to them, my voice cracking. “We have to go to Detroit.”