Chapter 14

Pearl woke the next morning with an odd sense of disorientation. Then last night's memories flooded back in again. She immediately turned to look beside her, and, sure enough, a naked Gideon slept right next to her. She smiled, half remembering that they had gone from her room to his in the middle of the night because his bed was bigger. She leaned over, kissed him, and then got up and headed to the shower.

The bathroom door opened within a few minutes, as she stood under the hot water. He approached her, staring at her. She smiled and asked, "Are you coming in or staying there?"

He let out a happy sigh. "I just wanted to confirm that this was real." He stepped under the hot water, and they made passionate love all over again.

Her heart brimmed both with tears and with joy. He had had the same morning-after fear that it hadn't been real. She had woken up with a similar sensation. By the time she dressed and made it downstairs for breakfast, she was relaxed and carefree. She walked into the kitchen to find him putting on coffee. She smiled. "Is there even such a thing as people who don't drink coffee in the morning?"

He smiled back at her. "I have met quite a few people who don't drink coffee."

She frowned. "And you still trust them?"

He laughed. "I do, but it will always be something that amazes me because coffee is such an iconic thing to have at breakfast."

"It is for me," she murmured.

"Still?"

She nodded. "It's not as if anything would have changed that." She chuckled. "And some things you just don't change."

"I won't argue with that," he said, "and I can see how you would want coffee first thing in the morning. Some days I don't get my dose of caffeine, but, when I can," he noted, with a satisfied expression on his face, "it's definitely a joy, happiness all around." He picked up the pot of coffee that was done dripping, then poured her a cup, and the two of them sat down at the kitchen table. "So, I have a proposition." She waggled her eyebrows at him, and he chuckled. "Not exactly what I meant," he said, smirking at her. "But given not only the mess but all the drama involving your house, how do you feel about moving in with me?"

She slowly put down her coffee cup and stared at him. "Are you serious?"

"Yes, I am."

He was serious, and the look on his face was calm. "We used to live together, and I figured that the sooner we get back to whatever our new normal will be, the better."

"Are you sure? As you mentioned before, I can get another housing assignment."

"Honestly, it's got nothing to do with your house. It's… it's what I want. What do you say?"

She smiled at that, feeling the tears choke the back of her throat, and immediately nodded. "Oh, it's definitely what I want. I just didn't want to push it."

"Of course you didn't," he said, with a chuckle. "I didn't want to push you either."

"Push away," she said, with a wave of her hand. "We've missed so many years already that I just want to play catch up."

"And yet, like you, I don't want to play catch up. I want to build something better."

"Yes," she agreed, sitting there, thinking about how this was a perfect end to a perfect night. Yet it was probably on the early side for them to already be on the same page, after only this long.

His phone rang just then, and he checked out who it was and motioned at her. "I have to take this." He got up and walked into the other room.

She hadn't fully explored his house, but she was happy for him because it was such a beautiful place. He'd made a good attempt at making it his. As she sat and waited for him, she sipped her coffee, wondering about the process to get moved in now.

She did need to give notice to her landlord. Did she need to tell the owner that somebody was murdered in his house? Was that her place, or would the base or the MPs, or whoever took care of those kinds of notifications? That would cause her all kinds of chaos, she was sure. She also had to decide when she was going back to work.

It was Friday already, so she still had the weekend to decide, but she should be seriously thinking about going back on Monday. She didn't have unlimited funds, even with the investments from her inheritance, and still needed the job to keep herself afloat, even more so if she would move in with Gideon because she didn't want to be financially dependent on him. She'd always had a problem with being dependent on anybody, and that hadn't changed over the years. She'd become even more independent in many ways, and she couldn't help but think that was a good thing. Still, she didn't want to set off any arguments right now with Gideon.

When he walked back in and sat down, he had a perplexed expression on his face.

"So, are you allowed to tell me what's up?"

He shrugged. "To some degree I could. However, we're not exactly getting anywhere yet. We've found no sign of our Drew guy, still no draws on his bank accounts, credit cards, nothing. The lawyer says that he'd come in, appeared sad and downcast, had made several changes to his estate planning documents, and explained that he'd given away a lot of his money earlier. It hadn't occurred to the lawyer at the time that Drew might be suicidal, and he's beating himself up over it now. Back then it had just seemed like he was temporarily upset, but Drew quickly got over it, and they took care of their business, and Drew went on his way."

"What did the lawyer miss during their last meeting?"

"Now the lawyer's wondering about that, recalling the details of their visit, but, so far, nothing is shaking loose."

"Or not what he might have missed, as much as what his client was planning."

"Exactly. I do have to go to my office, so what will we do with you?" At that, a knock came at the door. When he got up to open it, Tristan came in.

"There's your answer," she said, with a sigh, "as if you didn't already know."

Tristan feigned an overly hurt expression.

She smiled. "If I must have somebody following me around, I'm happy to have it be you," she told him. "But this shadowy prisoner life isn't exactly fun for anybody."

"No, it sure isn't," Tristan agreed, with a smile in her direction. "Even for those of us in the shadowy world with you."

"Which is why it would be nice if there were another solution."

"There is," he declared. "We'll get this thing dealt with, and then I won't have to be here anymore."

She looked over at Gideon. "You'll go to your office then, so Tristan can come with me to my house, right?"

Gideon frowned. "What do you want to do at your house? I don't think the cleaners have been there yet, but it should be handled today."

"I understand that. I just thought that maybe… I was thinking about picking up a few more things."

Gideon smiled. "That's a good idea." He turned to Tristan. "She's moving in here with me. So anything she wants to bring, can you help her pack up?"

He groaned. "I am so not moving-guy material. That's got to be my worst job in the world."

"Sorry, Tristan," Pearl replied cheerfully, "but every assignment has its pros and cons. Lucky for you, I don't have that much stuff. So, yeah, you'll have to help me pack and move my stuff." He mock-glared at her, and she chuckled. "On the other hand, I'll take you out for lunch, if you do good work."

Immediately he clutched a hand to his chest. "Oh, be still, my beating heart. If I work my ass off all day, she'll take me out for one meal." Then he looked over at Gideon, cocked an eyebrow, and asked in a curious tone, "Unless that'll make he-man here jealous?"

Gideon laughed. "Nope, but she's got to eat, and, therefore, you get to go with her."

Tristan shook his head at that. "You guys are too much," he muttered. "Have you got boxes at least? Have you got anything?"

"I've got a few," she said, frowning.

Gideon stood up and told Tristan, "Check out my garage. Should be some out there. I don't know how much Pearl has to move."

She shrugged. "I don't think there's all that much, but I have quite a bit of kitchen stuff."

"Right." He stared at her with amusement. "I forgot about how much you like your kitchen gadgets."

She rolled her eyes at that. "Hey, take me, take my kitchen gadgets."

"Got it. I survived it all before. I don't think it will present a problem now." He got up abruptly and took Tristan out to the garage.

She stood in the open doorway, as they found a bunch of compacted boxes and some packing tape. Very soon Gideon was in his vehicle, ready to hit the garage door button. But then he looked back at her, shut off the engine, and approached her to give her a hard kiss. "Behave yourself." And, with that, he was gone.

She shook her head at his abrupt disappearance, then looked over to see a grinning Tristan. "Glad you find it amusing."

"Hey, I've known Gideon for a long time. This is a good thing."

"Agreed. But this," she added, twirling her finger around the area, "still feels like I'm being babysat. It's not as if the first intruder wanted me. He was just after the view from my house. And someone still may be watching that house, if Drew is alive."

"Yep. Now we at least know why the gunman had taken over your house. So that's all good too."

"Maybe, it's just so very strange that we haven't gotten any further with it."

"No, not yet. These things take time."

"Maybe so, but, if Drew is Mason's sniper, it would make more sense to take him out after the botched hit, than to let him run free."

"Who says that hasn't happened?" he asked. "Yet we did check with the morgue as to that theory."

She nodded slowly, thinking back to the sister they had met yesterday.

"Now, if you're ready," Tristan began, "let's go take care of whatever we need to pick up from your place."

She smiled. "Okay. I know it's not your favorite thing, but I do appreciate the help."

"I bet you do," he muttered, groaning. "How come every damn body just wants me for my muscles?"

She laughed as she got into his vehicle. "Maybe because you have more muscles than anything else."

"Hey, hey, hey," he cried out in protest, as they drove away. "You better be nice to me. Otherwise I won't pack up your house."

"Oh, good point," she noted immediately. "In that case, no insults—until the job is complete."

And with continuous bickering shared back and forth, they drove the relatively short distance over to her place. When they saw that the cleaners were here, he looked over at her. "Do you want to wait?"

"No, I want to get this done." And she did. She wanted to start fresh with Gideon, and she certainly didn't want to stay here in this house any longer than necessary. As she walked up to the front door, she admitted, "This is one of the hardest stages," she murmured. "You're not sure, but you're sure, and you're excited, but you're scared."

He nodded. "But you lived with him before, right?"

"I did," she said, with a smile. "However, remember how I'm the one who walked away."

"This time you won't," Tristan declared, with a certainty that had her wondering what he knew about her. "So it's all good." As they walked into the house, he showed his credentials to the cleaners, who just nodded at them and continued their work. Pearl and Tristan avoided that area, and she led the way upstairs to her bedroom.

As he looked around the room, he noted, "Wow, you were right. You don't have much, do you?"

"Nope, I sure don't," she agreed, with a smile. "We already took a big load of clothes and personal items over the first day."

He nodded, and they got busy packing. By the time they had the bulk of it done, she looked around and frowned. "I didn't have much, did I?"

"Honestly, you had a surprisingly small amount of personal effects." He studied her curiously. "Was that because you didn't think you were staying?"

"Probably. I came out West without very much because I knew it was a gamble. I didn't collect anything more in the meantime either. You don't collect if you're not staying."

He nodded. "That's very true, but now you are staying," he declared. "So it's definitely time to fill his house with your kitchen stuff."

She chuckled. "More stuff is there for sure." It took much longer, once they were in the kitchen to pack it up, than her bedroom had. When she turned around, she noted that the cleaners were gone, and it was just the two of them. She sighed. "We've pretty well got this beat."

He groaned in an exaggerated way. "Damn good thing," he muttered. "You've busted all my muscles."

She snorted. "If that's the case, they weren't all that good to start with."

He flashed her a bright, mocking grin and nodded. "I'll take these outside and get them all loaded up in my truck. You figure out what else you want, and we'll go from there."

She checked her watch and realized it was almost noon. "At least the cleaners are done."

"Yeah, it's just us now." With that, he started moving boxes into the garage. His truck was parked outside on the driveway, but it would shorten the distance and cut out turns and inner doorways. She finished filling the box she was on and then worked on filling the next one. Noting an odd sensation, she turned around to see her back door open, and Suzan, Drew's sister from across the street, stood there.

"Hey," Pearl said, with a bright, welcoming smile. "You decided to come back after all. Was that wise, with bad guys looking for your brother?"

Suzan shrugged. "Hard to stay away."

Yet Pearl noted something slightly different in her tone. "Are you all right?" she asked in concern, "It's got to be hard dealing with the loss of Drew, especially if he was the last of your family."

"The cleaners,… they were working here at this house, weren't they?"

She winced. "Yeah, they sure were."

"Is this where the guy was killed? I heard something about it on the news, and then it was mentioned yesterday."

"I don't remember if it was mentioned or not," Pearl clarified, "but, yes, the intruder was killed here." She wasn't sure it was mentioned on the news either.

Suzan nodded slowly. "Did you know the guy?"

"No, I didn't. He was watching your brother's house. At least that's what he told my friend."

"Your friend talked to the intruder?" Suzan asked.

At that, Pearl nodded. "Not a whole lot of choice when he was being held at gunpoint."

Suzan gave a shudder. "That sounds terrible. I can't imagine my brother being mixed up in something like that."

"Maybe not, but just remember whatever good memories that you have of Drew. Don't worry about the intruder at this point."

"Is it so easy though?" Suzan asked, staring at her. "You're obviously moving. Where are you going?"

For whatever reason, Pearl felt almost too much of a question was there.

Suzan softened her tone immediately, then backed off, as if she were unsure how her questions had been received. "Not prying," Suzan added, far too quickly. "I guess I'm just surprised."

"I'm not sure where I'm going at the moment, but I have to go somewhere, at least temporarily," Pearl hedged. "A man was killed in this house. I don't want to stick around and have those memories going around in my head again and again."

"No. I'm sorry. That would be awful." She looked at the kitchen and smiled. "Obviously you haven't been here all that long."

"Yet I have been. I just hadn't unpacked a lot of things, and I didn't get all that comfortable here." Suzan didn't say anything. "Is there something I can do for you? Otherwise, sorry, I'm busy, trying to stay on schedule here."

"I can see that," Suzan replied, then nodded, as she turned and looked toward the open door connecting to the garage. "You're just stacking up boxes in the garage? That seems like an odd thing to do."

Pearl turned and saw one of the boxes in the garage that still hadn't been loaded on Tristan's truck. "It's the easiest way to get things from here to there." Suzan just nodded again. Awkwardly Pearl repeated, "I'm sorry, but I do need to get back to packing."

"Of course, of course," Suzan muttered. "I'm sorry. You were so friendly yesterday."

Almost immediately Pearl regretted being so friendly but knew that wasn't the right attitude either, especially since the woman had just lost her brother. "I'm sorry, and you're right. It's a tough time for you. Maybe you should get some counseling."

"Maybe. Did you ever see what was going on over at my brother's house?" she asked, turning to stare through a nearby window. "Would you mind if I took a look from the living room to see?"

"There's really nothing you can see," Pearl said. Yet she walked Suzan through to the living room. "Still, you're welcome to take a look."

"Thank you, and you're right. Not a whole lot to see, is there?"

"No, there sure isn't." Pearl smiled.

"And you never saw anything?"

"No, I never saw anything. I don't know why the intruder thought this place might have something of a view, but I'm sorry to say the intruder lost his life because of it."

"Did you kill him?" Suzan asked in shocked fascination.

"No, no, God no," Pearl cried out. "That would have been a lot harder to deal with. No, it was one of the men who came to rescue me."

"Rescue?" Suzan asked in an odd tone.

"Yes, rescue," Pearl declared. "Remember how this strange man was inside my house, and he had a gun, and I was just outside?"

Suzan nodded, as she stared in fascination across at the other house. "How is it that, after living here for months, you never saw my brother over there?" she asked, turning to look at her in confusion.

"Because I've never been the type to sit and watch the neighbors out my windows," she replied, realizing the time she was wasting. Pearl pointed toward her kitchen and, as politely as she could, said, "I do need to finish packing."

"Of course, of course." Suzan smiled. Then she turned and headed to the back door, the same way she had come inside. At the door, she looked back. "Thank you for your kindness yesterday." With that, she quickly walked outside.

Pearl felt bad because she'd essentially pushed Suzan out the door. Yet Pearl quickly finished packing up a box, and then realized Tristan hadn't come back inside for quite some time. She stepped into the garage and called out, "Tristan, are you here?"

Nothing, no answer, not a sound came. Frowning, she headed outside to his vehicle parked in the driveway, looking for him. When she still saw no sign of him, she called out again, "Tristan, where are you?"

Getting worried, she raced back inside and searched everywhere she could, then headed back outside. She stopped to consider what could have happened and noted how Suzan had come over. With that thought now paramount in her mind, she quickly phoned Gideon. When he answered, his tone was distant, as if she'd pulled him out of a meeting.

"I don't know where Tristan is," she cried out immediately.

"What? What do you mean, you don't know where he is?"

"I don't know where he is," she repeated. "The neighbor came by, and I was talking to Suzan for a few minutes, and then I went to find Tristan, and I don't see him," she explained. "He's not in his vehicle or in the garage. He went out to load stuff in his truck, while I packed up things in the kitchen, but there's no sign of him."

"Whoa, whoa, slow down," he stated calmly. "I'm on my way. When did you last see him?"

She paused for a moment. "At least fifteen or twenty minutes ago," she muttered, fear now creeping into her tone. "Did something happen to him because he was here with me?"

"Don't even go there," Gideon said. "We're already on the way to you. You mentioned the neighbor."

"Yeah, the woman who we spoke with yesterday. The sister of Drew Honeycutt, Suzan."

"Right. Okay, we'll be there as fast as we can. Give us five minutes. Stay in the house, lock the doors, and don't go outside. Do you hear me?"

"Why though? I need to find Tristan."

"We'll find him.… I promise. We'll find him."

Even as she stood here sputtering and refining her argument, she heard vehicles pulling up outside. She raced out to the front yard.

"Any sign of him?" Jasper asked her, as he and a few guys spilled out of his truck.

"No, I can't find him anywhere."

With that, a group of men split up and took off all around, both inside and outside. Gideon arrived and now raced toward her. "Now, let's go over it again."

As she started to explain, his phone pinged, and he held it up. "I also have a picture I want to show you." He pulled up a photo, a picture of Suzan. "Is this the woman we saw yesterday and you saw this morning?"

"Yes, yes, it was."

He nodded grimly. "Here's the thing. Drew didn't have a sister."

*

Gideon caught Pearl as she collapsed backward, with a wordless cry. He immediately scooped her up in his arms, then carried her into the living room and carefully set her on the couch. "Easy," he said. "Take it easy."

"Tristan," she said in a frenzy. "Did she take Tristan?"

"I don't know that she had anything to do with this, but we're looking for him. Just hold tight. Give us a chance to sort out what's going on. Let's not panic."

She shook her head, just as someone called to Gideon from outside.

She scrambled to her feet, and he pushed her back down on the couch again. "Stay here," he ordered, his tone brooking no argument. She glared at him, and he added, "I need to find out what's going on." He walked to the doorway, quickly spoke to someone, then turned back to her. "They found Tristan. He's alive."

She sank back, tears in her eyes. "Oh, thank God," she muttered, catching her breath.

"It's okay," Gideon said. "Tristan's alive. They are driving him to the hospital."

"Do we know what happened?"

"No, not yet," Gideon noted, with a shake of his head, "but we at least have him."

Jasper joined them almost immediately, took one look at Pearl, and sat down across from her. "I need to hear what happened."

"He headed outside to load up more boxes, and I was still packing up in the kitchen. We'd been joking and teasing all morning, just making it a little bit more bearable. Suddenly this neighbor, not the neighbor but Drew's sister, the woman from last night, Suzan, showed up, and I started talking to her. I didn't even notice that Tristan hadn't come back in again right away because I was focused on her. I didn't hear from him, but I wasn't worried. I had no reason to be worried since he'd been right here with me the whole time."

"Anything specific about Suzan that you remember?"

"She wasn't… she wasn't quite the same as last night." Pearl frowned. "It was more like she was playing a role this time," she noted, glaring at them. "She was still talking about her brother, but she did ask me if I'd seen anybody across the way. Then asked why I wouldn't have seen anybody. I told her how I'm not the type to sit and stare out windows and watch the neighbors."

"She specifically asked you that?" Gideon and Jasper exchanged a look.

Pearl had no idea what that meant, but she nodded. "Yeah, she did. She just nodded. I told her several times that I needed to get back to packing, and then finally I ushered her out the door. Then I went back to packing, only to realize that I hadn't heard anything from Tristan. So I went looking for him, and you know the rest."

Jasper nodded. "So, the question is whether she's the one who hurt Tristan. He was hit in the back of the head, probably while bent over to pick up something. He was on the far side of his vehicle and had been rolled underneath."

She stared at him and shook her head. "Which could suggest that Suzan probably did it, since she didn't have to lift him."

"It's possible. It's also just an easy way to get somebody out of sight for a little while, not necessarily for a long time. Whoever hit Tristan and stowed him beneath his truck was looking to keep him out of view."

"But if she was after something, why didn't she go after me?"

"Maybe because you didn't know anything or maybe because you'd been kind to her. Maybe because she was keeping you out of harm's way. I don't know," Gideon replied, "but obviously we have to figure it out."

"And Drew didn't have a sister?"

Jasper replied, "Correct."

Gideon also nodded. "Exactly. According to the information we just got in this morning, Drew didn't have any family. He was alone, which is one of the reasons people assumed he'd committed suicide, since he didn't have anybody."

She sagged deeper into the couch and stared up at him. "So, Suzan's probably got something to do with this, but why would she be hanging around?"

Gideon suggested, "Because, for one, she may have been in cahoots with Drew, or she could have been lying for him, or could be a part of his fake suicide, or even a part of his alleged gun smuggling. Maybe she was his partner in crime, and he took off without her, not paying her even."

Jasper added, "Or maybe she's one of the bad guys after Drew. Maybe she's the one who hired him and wanted to take him out, after he botched the Mason shooting. Maybe Drew got wind of it and disappeared. There are all kinds of options."

"Exactly," Gideon agreed, "and, once again, we have too many options. If you want, Pearl, we can take a run to the hospital to check on Tristan to know for sure he's okay."

She nodded, as she looked up at him, tears in her eyes. "Yes, let's go. I don't want anybody getting hurt because of me."

"None of this is because of you," he declared. "You know that."

She shook her head. "But it wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for me."

Gideon laughed. "You mean, because you're here packing up, so we can get you moved into my place? No, that doesn't wash. All of this, all of this is their fault, not yours," he said. "And, yes, Tristan is awake. So let's go check in with him at the hospital."

"What about this woman, Suzan, or whatever her real name is?"

"Oh, don't worry," Gideon replied, with a careless wave. "Everybody is out looking for her right now."

Pearl nodded. "She acted odd when she was asking me those questions. I didn't so much feel she was being duplicitous, but she was hiding some emotion. But now I'm feeling like she was involved with Drew,… if you know what I mean."

Gideon nodded. "She could have been his partner in crime and his lover as well. That could be true."

"I do want to see Tristan," she said, immediately walking to the door. She turned to face Gideon and declared, "I would just as soon never come back here again."

"Understood." Gideon looped an arm around her shoulders and looked over at Jasper. "She wants to confirm Tristan is okay."

Jasper nodded. "Just remember…"

"Will do," Gideon replied.

Pearl waited expectantly, but nothing more was said. As they headed to Gideon's truck, she looked over at him and asked, "What did Jasper mean by that?"

"He's reminding me that the Suzan woman is still at large, and we don't know why she came back again today."

"I guess that's the part that confuses me," Pearl murmured. "Did she plan on doing something to me, then saw Tristan, and didn't have enough time to deal with both of us, or decided it was too much? Or maybe she decided I wasn't enough of a danger to her, or didn't know anything?"

"All of the above could potentially be true," Gideon murmured, "and, when we have answers, we'll share what we can tell you. In the meantime, we have no clue."

Pearl groaned. "That's always the worst thing."

"It is," he agreed. "The waiting and finding no answers to our questions are two of the hardest parts of our job."

As they got to the hospital, Pearl frowned. "The only reason for taking Tristan out would be because he might have stopped Suzan from coming inside and talking to me."

"Or he saw her when she was leaving the house, after talking to you," he pointed out.

"Right, that could have happened too." Pearl's shoulders slumped. She got out of the vehicle, waited for Gideon to lock it up and then to come around to her.

He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and said, "Let's go have a talk with Tristan and see if he saw anything, and then we'll head back to my place."

"And now all my stuff is half here and half there."

"Don't worry about it. We'll arrange for it all to be delivered to my place." He watched as she just shrugged, as if she didn't give a crap. Right now he could imagine that she wasn't too worried about her personal property.

Pearl changed the subject back to Suzan. "Suzan did ask me if I'd ever seen anybody over at Drew's place. Then she did say something off."

"What was it?" he asked, stopping to face her.

"Just something about Why wouldn't I have seen it ."

"Meaning that anybody would have seen it?"

"I think so.… I think she was figuring out what I saw, if I saw something that was important or not, but, if I hadn't seen it, why I hadn't seen it. I told her that I didn't have the time or the energy to spend watching my neighbors because I worked and just didn't give a crap."

"Do you think she believed you?"

"I don't know, but she didn't hit me, and she didn't hurt me, so maybe she did believe me. But that would imply that she had a soft spot, and I'm not sure the woman I saw today had any such thing."

"Seeing something at Drew's house could be problematic for her. She may have decided not to hurt you because Tristan was there—or maybe she didn't even know Tristan was there. Maybe having heard you say something, Suzan changed her mind. Regardless, she's quite likely to come back after you."

"But she had an opportunity right then to do whatever to me."

"But yet not , as Tristan was there."

"I guess," she muttered. "I guess it's possible that he came back into the garage, and she heard him, then decided to leave. But, if so, after she'd knocked him out, why didn't she come back inside to hurt me or take me or whatever?"

He smiled and shook his head. "Maybe somebody saw her hit Tristan. And we're still canvassing the neighborhood for that info."

"Right." Pearl groaned. "She knocked him out, but is she coming back after Tristan too?"

He tucked her closer to him and whispered, "Let us worry about that."

"I don't want anybody hurt because of me," she repeated.

He smiled. "I understand the sentiment, but not your guilt."

She paled and nodded. "Not to mention the fact that somebody died at my place."

"And that was not your fault either."

"I appreciate that you were protecting me, but damn it.… I just want all this to stop."

"You and me both," he declared.

They walked inside the emergency room, and she heard hollering from somebody within one of the curtained exam rooms.

She immediately yelled, "Tristan, stop that!"

Silence came, and a nurse poked her head around the curtain, with a big grin on her face. "That shut him up."

Pearl stepped through Tristan's curtain and glared at him. "What are you doing, making all that ruckus?" He glared at her, and she shook her head. "No, enough hollering. I had to confirm you were okay."

He flashed her a bright grin. "See? I told you that you would fall in love with me."

She snorted. "Yeah, no, so not happening. As you already know perfectly well, this guy beside me is mine."

"Yeah," Tristan muttered, with a sad look, "but I could always hope."

"Oh please, you would run a million miles away if you thought I might take you up on that offer."

He waggled his eyebrows. "But you don't know that for sure."