A police detective’s apartment was probably as safe as you were going to get.

I nodded.

“And I know we both decided to actively hate him for the rest of our days, but I’ve found out he’s kind of a nice guy,” she went on.

I looked into the kitchen to see both sets of eyes, one light brown (Scott) one hazel (Damian) aimed in the direction of the couch.

They didn’t look away.

I did.

“Yeah,” I replied. “But let’s talk about where the heck you’ve been for-blinkety-blank-ever.”

“I want to talk about why you were running from Ace in the Hole,” she said to me.

“No.” I shook my head. “Your car was found filled with blood. That story takes priority. Any story that includes pools of my best friend’s blood takes priority.”

Her face got soft.

“You knew about that?”

I nodded.

“Oh, honey,” she whispered.

“Talk to me,” I urged.

She didn’t make me wait, she got closer and shared.

“Well, when we made our plans, after I hung up, I kind of got excited. Of course, I was totally scared, but you sounded so confident, I was also excited. And I remembered, you and me together, we always made it through. We always survived. I also started to remember some of the stuff we went through and how I knew what was happening was worse, way worse. But together, we could take care of each other.”

She paused.

I nodded because she was right.

We’d always made it through.

I wished we’d remembered that earlier.

She kept going.

“So something was going down and there was no one in the house. All Enrique’s guys left with him, and I thought it was a sign, telling me we had our opportunity. But I decided to get smart. I took stuff I knew was worth money and I took stuff that I knew Enrique had. I decided we didn’t just need money, we needed insurance.”

Uh-oh.

“What’d you take?”

“I didn’t even know. I just knew he wouldn’t want me to have it. Files, papers, photos and flash drives. What I didn’t know was that he really didn’t want me to take it.”

“Oh, Tia,” I whispered, stunned she would do something like that, scared for her even though it was over and admiring that she had the courage.

“Anyway, when you didn’t show, I worried something was wrong. But I’d stolen stuff, I couldn’t go home. So I hung out in Phoenix as long as I could and laid low, hoping to connect with you. I kept going by your place, but I was worried they’d look for me there and your lights were never on and Mrs. Jimenez was never home either.”

Staying with Raymundo because she’d been tied up.

Darn.

Tia kept talking.

“Then, I saw them, and they saw me cruising your house, and I had no choice but to go. They followed me, but I thought I lost them. I decided to get set up in Seattle and find a way to contact you and you could meet me there. I needed to ditch my car though, so, in Nevada, I sold it to a used car salesman and traded it in for new wheels. What I didn’t know was that they’d been following me. They forced me off the road, and that’s when I also found out Damian was following me.”

“Um…who is Damian?” I whispered, leaning super close.

She smiled.

I stared, and I stared at the way she was smiling.

Oh my.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” she whispered back.

“Try me,” I invited.

She shook her head.

“Later, when he can’t hear. He can hear everything. He’s, like, Superman or something.”

She said this like it was a good thing. The absolute best.

I forced my eyes to stay on hers rather than look again into the kitchen at a tall, blond, hazel-eyed Superman.

“Anyway,” she went on, “there was a firefight. I was caught in the middle of it. Damian won the firefight. I was injured, and I have no idea what happened to the other guys, because I was sort of bleeding a lot and not paying attention. But Damian took me, the stuff I had on Enrique, and then we holed up in a house in the mountains. He stitched me up, I recuperated while he stayed with me and now, we’re back to rescue you.”

I was staring at her again.

“He stitched you up?”

“Yeah.”

“You were in a firefight where you were wounded by bullets, and he stitched you up?”

“In another life, he was a field medic.”

I kept staring at her.

“Honey,” I said quietly. “Field medics patch you up so they can stabilize you to be transported to surgeons who’ll stitch you up.”

“He’s very confident. He has no problem branching out.”

Oh my God.

“Tia—” I started.

“Now…you,” she demanded.

“No, you aren’t done. Are you safe? Who is he? What happens next?”

She smiled at me. “It’s all good. Damian gave the stuff I had to Rayne. He told me Rayne is,” she lifted her fingers and did air quotation marks, “running with it, whatever that means. We just needed to get to Phoenix, give it to him, pick you up, and then Damian is taking us to Seattle or wherever we want to go.”

“When did you get home?”

“About five hours ago. We got here and Rayne told Damian you were hooked up with the

Aces High Motorcycle Club. He made some calls, found out West Hardy was at a party there, told us you were likely with him, and if we wanted to find you, we had to go to a party. But we got there, and there you were, running down the street. That was pretty surprising. Rayne said you were solid with what he called,” more air quotation marks, “the MC, but I didn’t believe that. My Clara doesn’t run with a motorcycle club.”

Hmm.

She smiled again. “And I was right. You were running away.”

Hmm.

“I was solid with them,” I admitted, and this time, she blinked.

Then she leaned into me. “What?”

“If Damian has Superman ears, my story is for later. A lot later.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Why?”

“Because it’s private, personal, and when I tell you, I want it to be just between you and me.”

She examined my face and I knew she read it because hers got soft again and she whispered, “Okay, honey.”

That was my Tia.

My Tia.

My Tia could read me.

And she wasn’t dead. She was sitting right next to me.

Not dead.

Not dead.

I moved forward, wrapped my arms around her, gave her a tight hug, and it took a lot, a whole lot, but I managed to do this without sobbing.

“I’ve been so worried,” I said in her ear, my voice sounding clogged.

“I’m sorry,” she said back, her voice clogged too.

I held on and Tia held me back, and we did this for a long time.

Finally, she gave me a squeeze and we let go.

I took in a shaky breath.

Tia spoke.

“So, tomorrow, we’ll get your stuff and we’ll head out.”

I shook my head.

“No stuff. We’ll just go.”

Her brows knitted. “What?”

“Buck has my stuff and I’m leaving it. Fresh start all around. I have a little money in the bank. We’ll just go visit Mrs. Jimenez so she can see you’re okay and we can say good-bye, and then we’ll go.”