Sam wanted to run for her life, but she smiled and nodded. “Sure.”

Avery seemed to take great pleasure in dragging it out, taking multiple shots until he got one he was happy with.

“I will treasure this always,” Nancy said, hugging Sam.

Trying not to bristle, Sam said, “Um, thank you.” She couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

“Why are you dragging Jacoby into this?” Avery asked the second the door closed behind them. “We’ve got nothing to tie him to any of this.”

“Except for the fact that he’s gone missing at the same exact time his boss was murdered and his boss’s kidnapped son was kidnapped again. There’s nothing curious about that to you?”

“It’s far more likely that Jacoby is a victim in this than a perp.”

“You say that with such certainty. The same certainty you had that there was no way Hamilton could possibly be involved with a baby’s abduction. Remember that? Your exact words were no way, and now the DNA says yes way.”

“I know what the DNA says. I still say Hamilton didn’t know that baby was Taylor.”

“And I call bullshit on him not knowing. He was involved in the investigation. How could he not know?” All of a sudden, her brain began to swim, the buzzing in her ears got louder and the ground tilted. What the hell? She stopped walking and bent in half, hands propped on knees, breathing through the dizziness.

“Sam? What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know.” Despite the chilly bite in the air, her body felt hot, and her stomach wanted to reject Nancy’s delicate cucumber sandwiches. Ugh. She forced herself to stand upright and instantly regretted it. The world was now actively spinning, and only Avery’s quick thinking and his arm around her shoulders kept her from keeling over.

Shit, fuck, damn, hell, she had the goddamned flu.

* * *

THIS HAD TO be what it felt like to die. Sam wasn’t sure which was worse, the chills, the constant puking or the fact that she’d actually needed Avery Hill’s help—desperately. Everything was a blur from the time they left Nancy’s house until he somehow got them into a hotel room where she’d done nothing but puke since he half walked, half carried her in there.

“Sam, I think we ought to call EMS,” he said after another vicious bout of vomiting.

Curled into the fetal positon on the bathroom floor, she shivered violently as she tried to control the nausea long enough to speak. “Go. Away. Avery.”

“I can’t leave you alone like this.”

“Go!”