Sam ended the call, put down the phone and rested her head on her hands, her head spinning with so many threads to pull she had enough for fringe.

“Why the hell are you talking to him?”

Sam spun around to find her husband in the doorway looking fierce and furious. He’d picked right up on Agent Hill’s interest in her and had made it clear he wanted the agent nowhere near his wife. Unfortunately, their work kept throwing them together and they’d formed a collegial, if often uncomfortably reluctant friendship despite her husband’s alpha tendencies.

“I need his help.”

“What for?”

“He’s got access to cyber-geeks who can get the videos of my niece being raped off the Internet faster than I can with my resources. He can cut through jurisdictional warfare to get me a warrant to search her room at school. I need his help.” This was said softly the second time as the adrenaline she’d been running on seemed to leech from her bones all of a sudden. She was so fucking exhausted and had miles to go before she could sleep.

“I don’t like you being indebted to him.”

“I don’t like it either, but I like those videos a whole lot less than I don’t like him.” The statement didn’t even make sense to her, but hopefully he got the gist. And frankly, she wasn’t up for fighting with him. She had too many other things to do.

“Your dad is here. He wants an update on Brooke and the case, and he said Darren Tabor is outside hoping for a word with you.”

Sam’s exhaustion quadrupled at the news that the pesky Washington Star reporter was sniffing around. Of course he was. An ambulance had been called to her house last night. He and others would want to know why. First things first, she thought, as she got up to see her dad.

Nick stopped her progress by putting his arm across the doorway.

Sam looked up at him, unused to being so consistently annoyed by him. “What?”

“When are you going to sleep?”

“Later.”

“That’s not the right answer.”

“It’s the only one I’ve got right now.” Careful not to brush against his injured side, she scooted under his arm and went to the living room where her dad was talking to Scotty.

Skip’s sharp blue eyes shifted to Sam as she walked into the room with Nick right behind her. Seeing her dad in her house reminded her of how thankful she was for the husband who’d had the foresight to install a ramp at their house so her paralyzed father could come and go as he pleased. That ramp had effectively doubled the number of places Skip could visit whenever he felt like it.

Sam bent to kiss his cheek and squeeze the right hand that retained sensation.