Tessa turned to face him. “Give him some space, would you? He can answer your questions later.” She literally shooed him, and Micah may have found the situation funny – Tessa chasing a man twice her size away even with the pregnant belly – if a million other emotions weren’t trying to make themselves known to him at the exact same time. Micah felt nauseous.

“Uh, it’s my job to-”

“I know all about your job,” Tessa snapped. “I’m a detective with the 105th precinct, and so is Micah,” Tessa stressed, all but squashing him to her bosom, “so kindly back off.”

Whether it was morally right or not to use their status as members of the force to get Officer Judson to back off, Micah wasn’t about to stop her.

Especially since it worked. The man raised his hands in the air in the universal signal of surrender. “I didn’t know,” he assured before turning to Micah. “We can speak later.”

Micah nodded, the “thanks” he wanted to offer stuck somewhere in his esophagus. After he left, Tessa asked Tracy, the medic, if they could have some privacy.

Then it was just them.

“What happened?” she asked immediately, finally releasing Micah from her crushing grip, only to relocate her hands to his shoulders. “Did Damon-” her breath hitched “-did he…?”

It took him a moment to realize Tessa was asking if Damon had hurt him.

“What? No!” he said, not able to get the denial out fast enough. He shook his head, immediately regretting it when a sharp pain shot through his skull. “No. He has no idea what happened.”

Unless Caprice had told him already. (Micah had spotted the woman on the phone, some distance away, shortly after Tessa had arrived.) In that case, Damon was probably on his way to… to… Micah didn’t know what the man was going to do.

“What did happen?” Tessa demanded.

“Not here.”

Tessa looked like she wanted to protest, but Micah glanced pointedly at their surroundings – the place was still crawling with police – and she dropped the subject. “I told your dad as soon as I got the call,” she said instead. “He was fifteen minutes behind me.”

Micah fought the urge to groan. He was grateful for the warning, however, when the man arrived a short time later, with Jensen, of all people, in tow.

His dad loved him, Micah knew this. Captain Abram Hart just wasn’t always very… tactile in his affection. This resulted in him hovering awkwardly over Micah, looking torn between wanting to hug his son and drag him into the nearest interrogation room and ask him what the hell had happened.

He seemed to settle for fussing over his injuries.

Jensen – Micah still wasn’t sure why the man had come – had no such qualms. “What were you even doing in this neighborhood?”