“You should’ve told me what you saw,” Sam said after the door closed behind Freddie. “If you had, I could’ve called it in, and maybe we would’ve nabbed him. Instead, you go off on a Rambo mission that yielded squat.”

Nick contemplated that. “You might have a point.”

“I might? Really? Wow, thanks.”

“I’m sorry, all right?” He ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “I just reacted. So shoot me for wanting to get whoever is stalking you.”

“How do you know they’re not stalking you?”

“Because I’m a whole lot more boring than you are.”

“You’re not boring. Stupid occasionally, but never boring.”

“Thank you. I think.”

“Did you get a good look at him?”

He shook his head. “Nothing but a shadow, but that shadow was definitely watching this house.”

“If you see him again, tell me.” She pinched his chest hair and tugged just hard enough to raise him to his tiptoes and bring tears to his eyes. “Don’t you dare risk yourself like that again. You got me?”

“I got it,” he said through gritted teeth. After she released him, he rubbed a hand over his chest. “I only let you get away with that shit because I was taught it’s bad manners to flatten a woman, even if she deserves it.”

“Whatever,” she retorted on her way back into the house where Skip, Celia and Freddie waited for them.

Skip’s sharp eyes skirted over Nick’s bare chest and feet.

“Um, I’m going to go find a shirt,” Nick said, starting up the stairs.

“Might not be a bad idea,” Skip said.

“Leave him alone, Dad,” Sam said. “He’s already convinced you’re going to have him killed.”

“Also not a bad idea. Why didn’t I think of it?”

“Dad…”

“Relax and let me have some fun with the boy, will you? I so rarely get to have any fun these days.”

Freddie smirked.

“What’re you smiling at, Cruz?”

The smile faded. “Not a thing, ma’am. Not one thing.”

“I assume you’re not just here to bum another meal. What’ve you got for me?”

“Some of the others are heading over from HQ to help out,” he said. “Want me to wait and brief everyone at the same time?”

“Give me the highlights.”

By the time he had run through it, she had paced a path in the living room rug.

“I was thinking on the plane ride home,” Freddie said, “that the other women he dated were like substitutes for the one he couldn’t have. All of them resemble her in basic features, and I’m no shrink, but maybe he turned on the kink with them because he was frustrated he couldn’t be with the one he wanted.”