I raced to the other room, and there was Huey, still sound asleep, swaddled tightly. I picked him up, careful not to wake him, and held him to my chest. All the fear came rushing back, and I sucked in lungfuls of air.

“Nova!”

Devan’s voice from the living room had me running back out of the room, straight into his arms. He squashed me and Huey in his grip, waking up the baby, who grumbled and then started to whimper.

“You’re okay. You’re okay,” he whispered, his hands running all over my back. I pulled back a little, gently bouncing Huey, but I stayed wedged to Devan’s side. He rubbed his hands all over my back. “This is my fault,” he murmured. “All my fault.”

I thought I’d be a tear-fueled mess, but right now, I felt nothing. The cops came in next, followed by the paramedics. One of them guided me away, and I handed Huey to Devan.

“Hey there, my name is June. I’m just going to get you cleaned up.” That was when I realized I was bleeding. There was blood on my hands, and my face was sticky. There was blood on Huey’s sleeping sack. Panic hit me again, and I reached for Huey.

“There’s blood on that. Take it off him,” I yelled at Devan, who didn’t tell me to calm down; he just did what I asked. He threw the suit away, and then Huey was just Huey again.

“Look back at me, Miss Stone. I need to check out your face.” The paramedic held my face firmly as she checked me over. “Your nose seems to be broken, but everything else looks okay. Did you lose consciousness at any point?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“You have bruising on your neck.”

“She tried to choke me,” I said through the lump in my throat. Now that the medic had mentioned it, it kind of hurt to talk or swallow.

She looked over my head. “She probably should go to the hospital and check if there's any serious damage, but she doesn’t look like she has a concussion.”

Devan nodded. “We’ll take her.”

“Dev…” I just wanted to go home. Not here. Back to the home I shared with the guys, where I was happy.

“I’m not taking any chances with you. This was all my fucking fault. I knew Andrea was a problem, but I kept that shit to myself until I had proof.” He looked tortured.

Andrea was in cuffs by the door, and there were even more cops. They dragged her out, kicking and screaming like a banshee, until it took two of them to basically pick her up and carry her out of my apartment.

One of the remaining cops strode up to me. “Miss Stone, how are you doing?” His eyes seemed soft.