“God, I wish I knew. Would I be here if I did?” Rebecca glared at him. “I haven’t heard from her since she called me from the road, crying hysterically, saying she was coming back to my place. She hung up and never showed. No calls, no texts, no nothing!” Her color was high, her expression scathing. And yet there was something underneath, another emotion.

She hates me, he thought. And that hatred runs deep.

Rebecca wasn’t finished. “The news is reporting that you and she got into a fight the other night, and I can confirm that. She went on and on about it being over with you, that you’d had a horrible fight, and that she would tell me all about it when she got to Seattle.”

“And—?”

“And, obviously, she didn’t make it. I’ve tried and tried to reach her. As I said, phone calls and texts, but nothing . . . not since that night.” Beneath her hard veneer there was a hint of fear. For Megan? Or something else? “I’ve called the police and her friends and the hospitals and . . . and . . . oh, God.” She expelled a slow breath, and for a second, he thought she might break down. Instead, she set her jaw. “She’s just disappeared.”

“And you think I had something to do with it?”

“The whole world does, James.” Rebecca’s mouth tightened. “Me, personally?” she bit out. “I wouldn’t put anything past you. She said you were seeing some other woman, a blonde she said. Suzi. No—Sophie. That’s it. Dating her while you were still involved with Megan. She called you a man-whore. No surprise there, though, right?”

Before he could reply, she went on, “She said you two got into a huge fight, and that it was over. She didn’t tell me all the details, she couldn’t. She was too upset, so she was going to fill me in when she got to my place. But she never made it.” Rebecca’s loathing of him was barely concealed. “So, come on, James. Tell me. Where the hell is she?”

“All right, miss.” This time Nurse Rictor had had enough. She stepped closer to Rebecca, trying to separate the visitor from her patient. “If you won’t leave right now, I’m calling security.”

Her gaze never leaving James’s, Rebecca said, “Call them. But I want answers.” She jabbed a finger at James’s hospital bed.

James didn’t flinch, but his irritation was mounting. The lie slipped easily over his tongue. “I don’t remember what happened that night. Or much more before it. I’m having a helluva time piecing together what my life was right before all this came down, so maybe, if you were in contact with your sister, you could shed some light on it.”

Rictor had retrieved a cell phone from the pocket of her scrubs. “Mr. Cahill isn’t supposed to have visitors.”