“I didn’t send the email.” Piper’s voice was quiet. They were in Eric’s car, he was taking her the hell away from the crowded police station, and all he wanted to do was pull the vehicle over and haul her into his arms.

“I’m not lying to you,” Piper added quickly. “I didn’t reach out to Grady. Though, God, I wish I had right now. I wish I had been talking to him so he would have known that wasn’t me asking him to come here. I didn’t lure him to this city, and I never, never would have wanted him to be hurt or killed!”

He spared her a quick glance. Shit, she was crying. He saw her swipe away a tear on her cheek.

“I hate this. I hate the bastard doing this. Grady and Jessica. Jessica is dead? She was my friend!” Another hard swipe on her cheek. “Who is going to be next? And why? Dammit, why? I haven’t led anyone on. I haven’t played games or—”

“None of this is on you.” His voice was low and hard. “Understand that, Piper. You didn’t do anything to cause this shit. It’s all on the SOB out there. He’s doing this. He’s hurting people. He’s the one that has to be stopped and punished. People like this—they could be crazy. They could be sick. They could be cold-blooded killers. But their actions have nothing to do with their victims. What he is doing has nothing to do with you or anything you’ve done.” The last thing that Eric would let her do was blame herself.

The light changed. He pushed down on the gas.

He heard Piper pull in a ragged breath.

“The detective seemed to blame me,” she mumbled.

His hold tightened on the wheel. Tread carefully. “She’s hunting a killer. We can count on her to do her job. She isn’t going to stop until she finds him. Layla is very determined. And she isn’t going to be misled by false information. She was pushing you—” Harder than he fucking liked. “But she will see the truth. Her vic is Grady, and she’s focusing on him. Her investigation into his murder is going to lead her back to the perp that we’re after.”

“There’s…something between you.”

Tread—

“Or there was, right? I could see it, when she looked at you. The two of you were involved.”

He couldn’t read the emotion in those words. “A long time ago—and briefly. We realized we were far better as friends than we’d be as lovers.” Mostly because he hadn’t let her or any other woman close. His attention had always been elsewhere, and that sure as shit hadn’t been fair to Layla.

“You didn’t seem like good friends today.”