“That’s not what I said.”

“They both disappeared at the same time. Did you think it might be the other way? Maybe Nico had something to do with Dulac disappearing.”

“Maybe,” Hazard said. “Although Nico would have needed some way to overpower Dulac, since, based on what we know, Dulac would be more likely to have an advantage in—where are you going?”

“Work.”

Hazard pounded after him; in her bedroom, Evie was shrieking something about her play kitchen. He caught Somers at the stairs.

“I am not mad,” Somers said, sounding very reasonable again.

“Great.”

“I just have a hard time believing that one of our friends is a psychopath and a serial killer.”

“We talked about why—”

“And we talked about why it might not be, too.”

Hazard cocked his head, and then he hooked a finger behind the knot of Somers’s tie, dragging the blond man up a step.

“Stop messing around.”

Hazard tugged a little harder, and Somers came up another step.

“Stop,” Somers said, “you’re making me late.”

“For someone who’s not mad,” Hazard said, tugging again, “you’re yelling at me a lot.”

Stumbling onto the landing at the top of the stairs, Somers swiped at Hazard’s hand, but Hazard didn’t let go. Instead, Hazard kissed him once and said, “You are the one I’m loyal to. You are the most important thing in my life. If I have to rip down the rest of the world to find this asshole, I will. But you come first.”

Somers squirmed a little, still trying to pry Hazard’s hand free. Then he gave up and folded his arms and focused on a spot over Hazard’s shoulders.

Hazard kissed him again.

“That is not going to work,” Somers muttered.

Hazard kissed him a third time.

With a dramatic roll of his eyes, Somers said, “And Evie.”

“And Evie,” Hazard said. “You and Evie. The most important things in my life.”

Blowing out a breath, Somers said, “Fine. I understand. I just don’t . . . like it.”

“That’s because you’re a nice person, and you like having friends.”

“I believe you were the one who volunteered to babysit for Noah and Rebeca and then gave them tickets to a Lady Gaga concert.”

“That’s because we owed them, and by assigning a dollar amount to the time they spent babysitting and assessing the street value of those tickets—”

Somers covered Hazard’s mouth. “I will honestly scream if I have to deal with this right now. I understand. I do. It’s just not easy for me. Please try not to burn every bridge in this town. I would one day like to be an old man who plays golf with friends, and that is looking less and less likely.”

“Technically,” Hazard said when Somers pulled his hand away, “you can play golf by yourself.”

“Goodbye.”

“Or you could just go to the driving range.”

“I can’t hear you.”

“We could get you one of those putting games and put it in the office.”