This time they both raised their eyebrows at me. I stared them down, daring them to say something. Neither did. Smart men.

Dad shook Chris’s hand. “I take it you’re who she’s been spending so much time with?”

Chris nodded.

“Well, I guess I should thank you for keeping an eye on her. Nikki’s always needed a little extra . . . supervision.”

Chris barked out a laugh. “You’re telling me!”

“Shut up,” I said, putting venom behind it, but not really feeling it. I sounded more pouty than intimidating.

“I’ll go get the car,” Dad said, and before anyone could argue, he was through the curtain, his chuckle following him down the corridor. Chris and I were alone.

“I thought you died,” I said angrily. He didn’t respond. “On TV? Drug bust turns deadly? What the hell happened?”

“Heriberto’s dead,” he said flatly.

“Jesus,” I said. “You okay?”

“It wasn’t me,” he said. “I showed up to arrest them, brought a couple officers with me, but as soon as we got there, you left that message about finding the yacht.”

I gawped at him. “So you just left?”

“I just left.”

“But your car . . .”

“I was blocked in, and I was in a hurry, so I grabbed a car from another detective. After I left, Heriberto apparently came out of his house and started shooting. It was over pretty quick.”

“You just left.”

He gave an impatient nod. “Yes.”

“Why?”

He took a few steps, so that he was standing just in front of me as I sat on the edge of the bed, my knees dangerously close to his hips. “Because it was you.”

The air between us had gone into a buzzing violet. I felt it pressing on my chest. “I thought you were done saving me.”

“Actually,” he said, “there was a bullet hole in the front seat of my car when I got back. If I’d been sitting there, it would have hit me. So I guess you could say that you saved me.”

I laughed. “It’s getting so old saving your ass, Detective.” I rolled my eyes dramatically.

“I’ve told you a thousand times,” he said, mocking what I’d repeatedly said to him months before, when we barely knew each other. “Call me Chris.”

He reached out and touched my cast with his finger; the violet almost took on a physical presence, it was so strong.

“You remember me telling you to call me Miss Kill a thousand times, huh?”

“I remember more every day,” he said.

I raised my eyebrows. “And you still want to be around me?”

He bit his lower lip and nodded, slowly, seriously. “More than ever.”