He shoved the thought aside because it felt so wrong. She was his friend. “Why did you run from me? What did I do?”

Her eyes remained tightly closed. “Nothing,” she said in a tone that meant he’d done something. He hadn’t been born yesterday. He knew that women usually meant “something” when they said “nothing.” He also knew that pushing her was a bad plan.

But not pushing hadn’t worked, either. “Something’s been bothering you,” he murmured, stroking her hair.

For a moment she seemed to relax into his hand, but then she lurched back several inches, putting her out of his reach. “I’m all right,” she said through clenched teeth. “Why did you come here?”

Tom recoiled as if she’d slapped him. She’d never pulled away from his touch. Not ever. His brain stalled and no words would come. “What did I do?” he whispered.

Her face fell and she pursed her lips the same way she had in the Sokolovs’ laundry room, like she was holding her emotions in tight check. Finally, she opened her eyes and gave him such a sad smile that his heart hurt. “Nothing, Tom. You didn’t do anything wrong. Now, if there’s nothing else, you need to go.”

He opened his mouth, then closed it. He started to rise, then sat back down. “Mike the—” He barely stopped himself from saying the Groper. “The guy downstairs,” he improvised. “He said you were shocky from your ordeal this morning.”

Her jaw tightened. “I told him that I’d nearly hit a kid on a bike.”

“I knew you hadn’t told him anything important. He took me by surprise, that’s all.”

“You and me both,” she muttered.

The aching of his heart lessened, just a bit. “You didn’t call him?”

She rolled her eyes before closing them. “No. He was here when I got back and I told him to go home, but he’s a nurse, too. He wouldn’t leave until he’d taken care of me.”

I should have been taking care of you.

The thought was as clear as the blue sky beyond her closed window shades, and it stunned him into a moment of silence. Then his brain caught up and he cleared his throat. “The shooter was DJ Belmont. We saw his face on the surveillance tape.”

“What a shock,” she muttered sarcastically. “I figured that this morning, without fancy tech.”

He nearly smiled at her snark, but the gravity of the situation kept him sober. “So did I, but I have to prove my theories with evidence. He may have seen you. You could be in danger.”

Her expression didn’t change. “And?”

He wanted to force her to open her eyes so that he could truly see her. But he kept his hands on his thighs and his voice steady. “And you need to take appropriate precautions. You shouldn’t go running off alone. Anywhere. With anyone.” He added that last sentence with Mike the Groper in mind. “Not until we catch him.”