“Detective Lee.”

“Ruby, it’s Mark.”

“Hey.”

“I need you to stay late tonight. Some information has come in, and I need you to take a look.”

Crap. I’d been looking forward to dinner with Ryan. He’d promised me an elegant meal at the best restaurant in the city. “Sure. Just let me make a call.”

I texted Ryan that I’d be working late at my boss’s request and that I was sorry I couldn’t make our dinner date. Then I walked to Mark’s office, which was at the end of the hallway, somewhat isolated.

The door was closed, which was odd. Mark had a notorious open-door policy. Should I knock or walk in? To be on the safe side, I knocked.

“Come in,” he called, his voice a bit…off.

I cocked my head and turned the doorknob. Something niggled at the back of my neck. But this was Mark, who I trusted. Not only was he a great cop, he was a friend. I opened the door.

And I gasped, my heart racing.

A masked man was holding a Glock to Mark’s temple.

“I’m sorry, Ruby,” Mark said, his voice shaking now.

“Some cop you are,” the man said, his voice muffled. “I walked right in here.”

Mark wouldn’t have fallen for a ruse unless it was exceedingly well thought out. I had yet to meet someone who could deceive my boss.

And then I knew. Nausea climbed up my throat. How the hell had he gotten in here with a weapon? He’d had help. Inside help. Was there no one my father couldn’t get to?

“Put the gun down, Theo.”

He looked at me with intensely odd blue eyes. The colored contacts Jonah and Melanie had talked about. His face was covered in a black mask, his eyes distorted, and he’d tried to disguise his voice, but I would know him anywhere.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” my father said. “You’re going to call off the Steel brothers, and you’re going to stop trailing me. Got it? Otherwise, your boss here meets his maker.”

“Don’t listen to him, Ruby,” Mark said. “He’s bluffing.”

My father pushed the gun farther into Mark’s temple, wrinkling the skin. “I don’t bluff.”

No, my father didn’t bluff.

“Let him go,” I said.

“Not until you do as I say.”

“How stupid are you?” Mark asked, his voice never wavering. The man had nerves of steel. “You walk right into the police station and make demands? How the hell did you get past security? Past the blues on duty? You’ll never get out of here alive.”

“You’ll die before I do,” my father said.

“You need money, don’t you?” I said. “I don’t have any, but I can get some.”

“From your Steel boyfriend?”

“What does it matter, as long as I get it?”

“The only money I want is from his father.”

I raised one eyebrow. “Then tell me where his father is.”

“He’s dead.”

“That’s an old song, Dad. We know he’s alive. We know he faked his own death. What we don’t know is why.”

“I don’t know any more than you do.”

“You’re lying. And now you’re going broke, aren’t you? How much did it cost you to pay off Mills and Johnson? To get them off the Steels’ case?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Ruby,” Mark said, his voice still calm. “I can handle this.”

My gun was in my shoulder holster. I was fast, but I wouldn’t be fast enough. By the time I could get to my weapon and take down my father, Mark would have a bullet in his brain.

Oddly, I didn’t fear for my own life. So many years had passed, and my father hadn’t taken me out. He could have, but he hadn’t. I had every confidence that I wasn’t about to lose my life.

I wasn’t very confident about Mark’s life, though. I had to get him out of here.

This was all surreal. Mark was an outstanding detective and a renowned martial artist as well. How could my father have gotten the best of him?

Unless…

Mark didn’t seem frightened at all. Even the best cop in the world freaked out with a gun at his head.

Mark couldn’t possibly be in league with my father. Could he?

I didn’t have time for this. I had to believe in Mark’s integrity. I’d get him out of this mess, even if it meant sacrificing the chance to bring down my father.

“Let him go, Dad,” I said. “I’ll get you money, if that’s what you need. I’ll convince Ryan to let this go. I’ll do whatever it takes. Mark is a good cop, and he’s innocent here.”

“No one in the world is innocent.”

I couldn’t help myself. “Certainly not you. Tell me, what turned you into such a sick bastard?”

My father faltered for a millisecond, and in a flash, Mark executed a perfect knife hand and dislodged my father’s sidearm.

But a shot rang out, and Mark went down.

By the time I was armed, my father had run out of the room.

“Go after him,” Mark said breathlessly. “I’m okay. You can get him. Take him down.”

He was bleeding profusely from his side. He was far from okay.

If I left now, I could get Mathias. Bring the bastard down. Someone had most likely heard the gunshot. Help would come…

But maybe not in time.

I had to stop my feet from taking off after my father. He wasn’t worth Mark’s life. I applied pressure to try to slow down the bleeding and then tore at Mark’s shirt for a makeshift bandage.

“Hang in there, boss. You’re going to be okay.”

“I’m so sorry, Ruby. He… He threatened my wife. I didn’t know what to do. Have to call…” His eyes closed, and he lost consciousness.

Blues swarmed in within seconds, and I called the paramedics. Mark was barely breathing when they arrived minutes later. They bagged him with oxygen and got him on a stretcher. I stayed to answer questions from the cops who’d burst in.

When the officers were satisfied they had all they needed, I stared down at my hands coated in Mark’s blood, shivering. Thoughts jumbled in my head, my mind shifting from one bloody image to another. His wife. I had to call his wife, Yvonne. I grabbed my cell phone out of my pocket and dialed Mark’s home number.

One ring.

Two.

Three.

And then a breathless, “Hello?”

“Yvonne? It’s Ruby Lee from the station.”

“Ruby, hi.”

On the force for eleven years, and I still hadn’t gotten used to giving out bad news. My stomach dropped. “You need to get to the ER. Mark’s been shot.”