Nick’s jaw tightened with tension. “I needed to know you were all right.”

“Will you still need to know I’m all right if we break up?”

“Sam…”

“I’m just wondering.”

“I’ll always worry about you, no matter what.”

“If that’s the case, then it seems kind of stupid to break up. What if I’m with someone else and I get taken hostage? You won’t be able to show up like you did today. It won’t be your place.”

The idea of her with someone else tore at him, which of course was her goal. “I know what you’re trying to do.”

“I’m trying to show you how dumb you’re being.”

“Gee, thanks.” He was so damned glad to be arguing with her that the barb didn’t bother him in the least. On Ninth Street, he parallel parked between his house and her dad’s.

“Thanks for driving me,” she said. “You must need to get back to work.”

“I’ve got some time. Let’s go in. I’m sure your dad is anxious to see you.”

He followed her up the ramp to her father’s house where Skip, Celia, Angela and Tracy waited for them.

When her sisters started to rush over to Sam, Nick held up a hand to stop them. He shook his head, and they seemed to get the message that Sam needed someone else just then.

She went straight to her dad and rested her forehead on his shoulder. “It wasn’t him,” she said. “He didn’t shoot you.”

“That’s the least of my concerns right now. How are you?”

“I’m fine,” she said, straightening. “I need a shower, though. Reese offed himself right next to me.”

Angela winced. “God, that must’ve been horrible.”

Sam shrugged off her sister’s sympathy. “I’d almost talked him out of the gun.”

Nick’s heart ached as he watched her attempt at stoicism. He could see the truth in her eyes. No doubt her family could, too.

“I’m sure you did everything you could,” Tracy said. “Just like you always do.”

“That’s right,” Celia said.

“Go on up to the shower,” Skip said. “You’ll feel better once you get cleaned up.”

After Sam went upstairs, Sam’s sisters followed Celia into the kitchen.

Skip turned his gaze on Nick. “Takes a special kind.”

“Sir?”

“It’s not easy loving a cop. You get to do all the worrying.”

Hands on his hips, Nick struggled to contain the surge of emotion that hovered just below the surface. “Yeah.”

“She needs you,” Skip said. “She’d die before she admitted it, but she does.”

Nick marveled at how Skip saw right through him.

“I’m, ah, going up to check on her.”

“You do that.”