Nate’s eyes were unreadable. “Why didn’t you tell me you turned your brother in to the police?”

I went very still. “How did you know about that?”

“It came up in my investigation.”

“Ben came up in your murder investigation?”

He didn’t reply.

“I guess I figured you didn’t need to know,” I said finally. “I know I shouldn’t have turned him in, but I wanted to protect him. I thought jail was the safest place.”

“Where’d you get all the drugs you planted on him?”

“I—I—didn’t plant anything. He already had them. I just called it in.” I set the hospital bill down slowly, trying not to give away my shaking hands.

Nate’s mouth narrowed into a thin line. He didn’t believe me.

“You can’t understand!” I burst out. “You belong to a family that hasn’t been broken. Watching someone you love injecting himself and destroying his life, it’s not a happy place. I’d have done anything to keep him from dying.”

I thought of Ben the day I’d found him passed out in the alley. A teenager had approached me—dark, oil-slicked hair, pimply skin. He told me Ben owed his brother some money. A lot of money.

“He has to pay off those debts or…” he’d said. Not cruelly or anything. He actually sounded apologetic, a little regretful.

“What can I do to help him?” I asked.

He’d looked down at me, sitting cross-legged next to my brother on the filthy pavement. “You can’t help him. You are… helpless.”

He left then, telling me he’d be back soon to get the money Ben owed him.

After that, I knew I couldn’t just sit by and let him get killed. Not by the drugs, and not by that kid’s brother.

So I’d stolen needles and tourniquets from the hospital. I’d begged Gabe to get me a bag of heroin that I could sell to help me pay my bills. I told him I couldn’t make my student loan payments, that I was about to be evicted and hadn’t eaten in two days. I didn’t give up until he got it for me. The rest I got from a guy I’d never met before on the street. I went downtown and bought a couple of bags of heroin. It was easy to get drugs, I’d learned.

Too easy.