“Are you okay?” Luke’s gaze touched Katie’s for an instant.

“Get out or I’ll cut her,” Ray threatened. The knife was poised high, glinting in the fading sunlight. “I swear it, man.”

“Leave her be.” Luke didn’t move, just crouched, his gaze trained on the knife.

Fear congealed in Katie’s blood. “Let me go,” she demanded. “There’s no reason for this.”

Tense, appearing as if he’d lunge at any second, Luke took a step toward Ray. “Who are you?”

“Stop right there.”

The arm around Katie’s waist jerked hard and she gasped. Luke froze. Ray pulled her backward, toward the living room, his boots crunching on the bits of glass scattered on the old linoleum.

Katie’s heart thudded wildly. There was nothing she could do. “You—you haven’t been in this kind of trouble before, Ray,” she said.

“Ray?” Luke repeated, his expression wary. “Ray Dean?”

Sweat streamed from Ray’s face.

“Just let her go and we’ll talk this out,” Luke insisted.

“Nothin’ to talk about.”

“Sure, there is. You told me about Isaac Wells,” Katie said. “That you think he’s going to frame you or something. Why don’t you let me write your side of the story?”

She felt him hesitate.

“If you do anything now you’d be thrown back in prison for a long, long time. And Isaac would get away scot-free. Think about your kids,” she said, sensing him listening, hearing his breathing slow a bit. “Laddy and Miles need a dad who isn’t in prison.”

“They’re used to it.” He glanced at Katie. Luke sprang forward. Startled, Ray stumbled a bit. His hold on Katie loosened a little. She threw herself away from him. “Don’t move!” Ray’s knife arced downward. Katie, screamed and looked for something—anything—to use as a weapon. Luke caught Ray’s wrist, and the knife trembled as the men struggled.

Grunting, swearing, muscles straining, they wrestled each other to the floor. Glass crunched. Katie ran for the door, her feet slipping on the shards. She threw the bolt, shouldered open the door and, screaming for help, grabbed the only thing she could find—Josh’s old baseball bat that had been left in the corner.

Sirens wailed in the distance, and a truck roared to a stop behind Ray’s van. From the corner of her eye, Katie spied Jarrod bolting out of his pickup. “Get away!” he yelled, running up the steps, two at a time.

But it was already over. Luke, straddling Ray’s chest, had him pinned to the floor.

“Hell, Katie what were you thinking?” Jarrod demanded as she followed him into the house. Outside, a police cruiser slammed to a stop.

“I thought I was renting my house.”