Live to the danger, and annoyed by Sam’s assumption that she needed saving, she got up and grabbed Matthias by the shirt, turning her furious gaze on Sam. “You handled him like a caveman.” She drove her knee between Matthias’s legs, and he doubled over in pain. “I use skill.”

“Kicking a man in the nuts isn’t skill.”

“It is when I do it.” She released Matthias and he dropped to the floor. “See? I incapacitated him. You just made him angry.”

Two burly bouncers pushed their way through the crowd and grabbed Sam by the arms. “Let’s go. You’re out of here.”

“I’m the one who started it.” Layla gave an exasperated sigh. “If you’re going to throw someone out for fighting, it should be me.”

“I helped,” Sam offered. “I pulled him off the stool. You’d better throw me out, too.”

“Are you with her?” The bouncers released Sam and he smoothed down his shirt.

“I sure am.” He wrapped a possessive arm around her shoulders. “I’ll be in the doghouse tonight for being late, but I always make it up to her in bed. Don’t I, meri jaan?”

She was hardly his “dear.” More likely she was a thorn in his side. But she doubted the bouncers understood Urdu, so she forced a smile. At the very least she’d gotten rid of Matthias without breaking her nails. Daisy had spent an hour painting tiny orange lotus flowers on the red press-ons for her big date.

“What are you doing here, Sam?”

“What am I doing here?” Sam gave a look of mock horror. “I thought it was date night. Don’t tell me the babysitter is at home looking after our six kids for nothing.”

“Six kids?” One of the bouncers reached over Layla and shook Sam’s hand. “Respect, man. She doesn’t look a day over twenty-eight.”

“Twenty-eight?” Layla gave an affronted sniff. “I’ve only just turned twenty-six.”

“Married her at seventeen and didn’t waste time.” Sam patted her tummy. “Good thing I’m not a fan of ’roids. Tonight we’re going for seven.”

“Guess whose nuts are next if you don’t get your hand off me?” Layla muttered under her breath.

The bouncer laughed. “I can’t say I envy you going back to a house full of kids, but you’re clearly having fun making them.”

Layla didn’t know whether to be annoyed or amused after the bouncers let them off with a warning. On one hand, she was perfectly capable of handling the unwanted attention. On the other, she’d never had a man swoop in to save her before, and she couldn’t help but be touched by the gesture, even after his behavior at her aunt’s store.

“Six kids?” She took her seat at the bar and Sam sat beside her.

“Seven after tonight, unless you don’t forgive me. I came to apologize.” He waved over the bartender and ordered a snakebite, receiving nods of approval from around the bar.

“How did you know I was here?” She nodded when the bartender offered her a refill. The night had suddenly become interesting again.

“Daisy told me about your date. I checked Harman’s Instagram to see if he’d posted anything and saw he was doing a photo shoot on Baker Beach. I figured he’d stood you up so I came to make sure you were okay.”

“I can look after myself.”

“So I see.”

Layla put down her glass. “How’s Nisha?”

“She’s fine.” Sam finished his drink in one gulp and motioned for another. “I shouldn’t have said the things I said to you. When I saw Ranjeet, I couldn’t think straight. He’s the reason she uses a wheelchair.”

“That’s not a bad grovel.” She squeezed his hand. “What happened? What did he do?”

Voice thick with emotion, Sam told her about Nisha’s arranged marriage and his part in bringing her and Ranjeet together. “No one knew he had a drinking problem or that he was abusive. When Nisha found out, she kept it quiet. She thought she could help him, but he was an angry, violent drunk, and in the last few months of the marriage things took a turn for the worse.”

Layla’s hand flew to her mouth. “He hit her?”

“No.” Sam drained his glass and asked the bartender for a jug of water. “But he scared her and she could see things going that way. One day she came to the hospital to meet him for lunch. She remembers arguing with him in the back stairwell, and then the next thing she knew she was in the ER with a shattered L2 vertebra. She was sure he pushed her, although she has no memory of the accident. Ranjeet says he wasn’t there, that he left her in the hallway and only found out when he was called to the ER.”

Her heart squeezed in her chest. “Poor Nisha.”

“Ranjeet convinced everyone she was delusional because she’d suffered a head injury during the fall, but I know Nisha. I believe her. I had her moved to Redwood Hospital and I did everything I could to get the hospital to investigate. I even contacted the police. But Ranjeet is a highly respected surgeon, and she’s a nobody who couldn’t even remember the details of the accident. She divorced him and the case was closed, but I heard rumors of a cover-up.”

“That’s horrible.”

“I’ve been trying to get justice for her ever since.” His voice hitched. “Unfortunately, I hit a brick wall at every turn. If there was a cover-up, it was a good one, because no one would talk.”

“She was lucky to have you, Sam.”

He shook his head. “She wasn’t lucky at all. I worked beside him for years and never knew what kind of person he really was. I was the one who brought them together, and he rewarded me for it with privileges the other residents didn’t get. He was a mentor, and I thought he was a friend.”

She squeezed his hand. “You couldn’t have known.”

“I should have known.”

“Is he the reason you dropped out of your residency?”

Sam sighed. “I couldn’t work there and see him every day. He was the antithesis of everything a doctor stands for. Our guiding principle is to cause no harm. I also felt unworthy to be a healer. I was so blinded by ambition and all the things Ranjeet offered to do for my career, I didn’t protect Nisha the way I should have.”

“You’re carrying a heavy burden,” she said gently. “One that isn’t yours to carry.”

His voice hitched. “I failed her as a brother, and I failed my family as a son. I couldn’t be part of that culture, or embrace the traditions that had allowed it to happen.” He poured a glass of water and drained it dry.