In the SAS, they train you to resist interrogation. I’d learned how to remain a rock, even when I’m being waterboarded. But when JD told me that, my poker face disintegrated. I leaned forward, helpless. “Yeah?”

JD slammed his coffee down, spilling it. “Goddammit, Danny! Just for once, for once—She’s my little sister!”

“It’s not….” I trailed off. It’s not like that, I was going to say, but how could I explain what it was like, when I didn’t even understand it myself?

“You want to know what happened in Vegas?” JD was in full rant, now. “Fine.”

And he told me about how her bastard boyfriend, Toby, had cheated on her, kicked her out of the company and taken her friends. When he got to the part about her spending Christmas day alone, I was shaking with rage. If I jump in the Jag right now, I can be in Vegas by tonight…. I was going to find this Toby guy and fucking annihilate him.

But then I saw the way JD was looking at me. He was just as mad, just as protective. But he wanted to protect Erin from me. That’s why he’d never introduced us.

“She’s just had her heart broken,” he told me. “I’m not going to let you do it all over again.”

I searched for words. I wanted to tell him that it wouldn’t be like that, but—

“You don’t do relationships,” he reminded me.

And that made me stop and think. He was right, I didn’t. Because I knew I couldn’t. Things felt different with Erin, but what if I was wrong? JD was right, she was fragile. If I slept with her and then it didn’t work out, it could destroy her.

JD stepped closer, his voice ragged. “Danny, I love you, pal. But if you go near Erin, I swear, I will beat the crap out of you. You and me, we’ll be done.”

It was like a slap to the face. He and I have tussled a few times, all best friends have, usually when I’m about to get into a drunken bar brawl. But this was different: he was a papa bear, protecting family. He really would hit me. And far worse, that last part: we’d be done. I swallowed. A life without JD was unthinkable. “Okay,” I said, and I could hear the rawness in my voice: this was from the heart. “I promise.”

He studied me for a second, cautious, but the mood was already shifting. He nodded…and then he suddenly pulled me into a big JD bear hug, crushing me close and patting my back. “Thank you,” he whispered.

I squeezed him back, hard. I felt like I was waking up from a dream. Of course I couldn’t put this at risk. What had I been thinking?!