Riding home with him was becoming a habit. One that she wasn't sure she liked.

Jillian wasn’t certain she didn’t like it, either.

Neither one of them said anything. Until they were halfway to their homes and she just needed to talk about something. "What are you thinking? Why were you still here so late? Were you waiting for me?”

She’d been planning on having Chance pick her up. But apparently Rafe had texted her brother-in-law on his way up to the roof.

She should protest his high-handedness, but at the moment she didn’t want to be with Brynna’s husband.

She wanted to be with Rafe.

Be with someone who understood.

"Something's going on in the hospital pharmacy. Numbers are not adding up, and there’ve been altered files. Files I know are altered—some were signed with Lacy’s name while she was in St. Louis at...my brother’s. Hard to argue with the proof of that. I’m trying to figure out what it is, who is responsible, and why Solpalmitraln is involved.”

“I heard arguing coming from the pharmacy the day I hit my head. When I was walking back from my lunch break. I usually take that hall to avoid the crowd.” She barely remembered what had happened that night, but she was pretty certain of that.

His attention sharpened. “Who was it?”

“I think it was Jessica Ward. A man left the pharmacy after that. He didn’t have a security tag. And I haven’t ever seen him before. I don’t think. I walked by him in the hall. He had on a delivery uniform or something. I was focused on my phone.” She hadn’t paid too much attention, honestly. She and the pharmacy tech had never really clicked. Not that Jillian hadn’t tried, but the other woman had a strange sort of resentment where other women were concerned.

Lacy had noticed the same thing, too.

And she had been consumed with thoughts of the man next to her to focus on another she walked by in the hall.

To be honest, details of that night were still pretty fuzzy. Something not uncommon with concussions—even mild ones. She’d probably never fully remember.

“Was he in the stairs at the same time you were?” Rafe’s tone sharpened. Jillian looked at him closely. There was anger on his face. Why? Did he think that man had pushed her?

Jillian didn’t have a clue if that was what had happened or not. She shivered; it was something she definitely didn’t want to think about.

"Honestly, I don't remember. The last thing I remember was pushing open the door. Then I woke up and you were there. That's all I remember." Was it possible someone had pushed her? Jillian wished she could remember. "What do you think is going on? Be honest with me, Rafe. I don't like it when someone lies. I… Can't handle it anymore."

He was silent for a long moment; she thought he was going to tell her nothing. "I'm not sure. But I have something you may want to take a look at. To be honest, you know the people involved for better than I do. You probably do see more than I do. And I need help figuring it out from people that I trust. That's you, and Lacy. And Fin. Come to my place; I’ll show you what I have."

She didn’t even hesitate, though she knew it meant being alone with him for even longer. "Okay."

They didn't say anything else until he’d pulled into his front driveway. He always parked there when he drove her home. Then he would walk her across their yards to her front door.

He’d insisted every single time; he’d stay on her front porch until she was safely inside.

She hadn't appreciated his overprotectiveness before. Until the night he had driven Ari home and refused to pull away from the building until she had texted Jillian that she was inside and safe. Fierce, big, and protective—that was who he was when he wasn’t growling at her.

Who was the real Rafael Holden-Deane? The big scary bear that everyone at FCGH feared, or the reluctantly protective big brother?

Her father’s house was dark again, attesting to the fact that her father was out somewhere and Syd was once again in St. Louis.

Jillian fought a moment of worry. Something was bothering her younger sister, and she had hurried back to St. Louis after being home less than a month.

It seemed like there was a lot of that going around. Everyone was quiet, secretive, consumed with whatever was going on in their own lives.

She missed her sisters. She missed Lacy, who now spent most of her time with Travis. And she missed Ari, who had been going back and forth between Austin, St. Louis, and Finley Creek, trying to get everything ready for W4HAV.

Everyone, everything had just changed. Change sucked.

"Come in, I'll show you what I'm talking about.”

Jillian led the way up his porch. It was an old-fashioned but appealing deck that encircled his entire home. The inside of the house was completely modern and minimalistic in a way that she found breathtakingly beautiful. But the outside had that old world charm that the rest of their neighborhood boasted.

It was one of her favorite things about her neighborhood. If she ever did move, that was something she hoped her new home would possess.

He unlocked the door quickly and flipped on the light in the entryway. "I'll order some take-out. What would you like?"

"Whatever you want is fine with me. I'm not picky."

What she wanted was to have him wrap those ridiculously strong arms around her and just hold her. Help her forget.

And why did the idea of spending the next few hours with Rafe sound so much better than going home?