“I’m not as feisty and emphatic as I will be when I’m healthier. But really, Luke. I need you to hear this.” She lifted her head and adjusted his face until their eyes met. “I don’t want you to get hurt, and I don’t want you to do anything that will end up getting you sent back to jail. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Promise me you won’t risk yourself or break the law.”

He hesitated.

Worry clenched painfully within her. “Luke.”

“I promise.”

She resettled her cheek against his shoulder.

“I had a talk with Robbie while you were unconscious,” he said. “He told me what really happened the day before Carla’s death.”

“I’m listening.”

He provided the details of her dad and uncle’s miraculous find.

“Did Robbie tell you what happened the next day?” she asked. “When Carla died?”

“No. He said he’d speak to you and you alone about that.”

“Will you ask him to come visit me tomorrow?”

“Sure you’re up for that?”

No. At the moment, she didn’t feel up for anything except this. Just this. Resting here with Luke. “I’m sure.”

Minutes passed during which she tried to convince herself that she could trust Luke’s promise not to risk himself.

“I’m sorry, Finley,” he whispered all of a sudden. “I hate that I didn’t keep you safe.”

“But you did.” Against the odds, he’d kept her alive. He’d gotten her help. “If it weren’t for you, they’d have killed me.”

“They almost did kill you.”

“Almost. But not quite.”

She could feel just how much he wished he’d been able to do more.

“I’m grateful to you,” she told him.

“No,” he said. “Don’t be grateful.”

“I can be grateful if I want to be. And I do.” She toyed with the collar of his T-shirt. His palpable anguish broke her heart. “I don’t blame you at all for what happened. What I’d like, very much, is for you to find a way not to blame yourself.”

Luke was incredibly loyal. But how much of this devotion could now be attributed to obligation? To pity? To a misplaced sense of responsibility over her injury? She desperately wanted him beside her . . . but not for those reasons. Not because he had a PhD in carrying guilt.

“The Vance brothers aren’t going to get away with what they did,” he vowed.

Apprehension pierced her.

She and Luke had come so far. She couldn’t stand to come this far only to watch vengeance tear him apart.

Trish and Kat’s voices stirred Finley awake the next morning.

Luke was gone. When she asked after him, they said he was at his apartment and would be back soon.