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He’d showed me.

In every kind gesture, in every moment he’d remembered something small about me, in every reassuring touch, Cal had been telling me the same story with only one ending. He loved me. Maybe that was why I’d made the choice that seemed irrational in the moment, because in truth, it had been the only reasonable option. To make my way to him. To do whatever it took to show him that I trusted him.

Being lovedwaslogical.

As the paramedics loaded me onto a stretcher, securing my neck in a brace on the off chance I had damaged my spine from my bounce across the road, I kept my eyes on Cal. I watched quietly as he spoke with intelligent confidence about the injuries he’d assessed at a glance. I watched as he worked with the EMS personnel and kept a professional distance from what they needed to do. And despite the ignominy of being carted off in a stretcher for launching myself from a moving car, I couldn’t make myself feel anything but relieved. Even when Gemma showed up and nearly ripped everyone’s heads off with her teeth, I floated in a surreal state of tranquility. Because despite the chaos, I’d found solid ground.

No equation could settle more beautifully than the conclusion I’d come to. Closing my eyes briefly, I relished that thought.

“What hurts?” Cal asked as he stepped up into the ambulance with me.

Although the stretcher jostled as they clicked it into place, I lifted one corner of my mouth into a smile and held his gaze. “Nothing,” I said honestly. “Really, I’m…” I hesitated, hardly believing my own words. “I’m good.”

Cal’s features tilted in disbelief. “We’ll get you checked out and back home in no time. You’re safe.”

My smile widened. He didn’t have to say it because I already knew it.

Because I was with him.

Chapter twenty-seven

Cal

Cal

Iran my thumb over the indented scratches on Ruth’s glasses, flinching when the jagged glass bit into my skin. She would need a new pair, so I wasn’t sure why I was hanging onto these. I couldn’t seem to let them go. I glanced up from where I sat beside her hospital bed, eying one of the local police officers interviewing her.

There were six of us in the small hospital room, with Gemma and Rook standing by the sliding glass doors, two officers standing in front of Ruth, and me in a chair on the other side of the wide bed. The accelerated rhythm of Ruth’s heartbeat filled the otherwise silent room before one of the officers looked up from a tablet to address a clearly nervous Ruth.

He had a blocky, frowning face and he tapped a finger against his tablet while his partner jotted down notes on an identicaldevice. “When you say Mr. Hormel detained you, was this with physical force?” They’d already inundated her with questions for over an hour now, and I could tell it was draining her.

Ruth hesitated, her wide eyes bouncing between the two officers. I’d gone back to her house to get her contacts for her, so I knew she could see them clearly even without her glasses. But she still looked confused. “I’m sorry, but I did say he blackmailed me.”

“Yes, but did hedetainyou?” the bulky officer asked.

His shorter, older partner gave him a side-eye. “What Officer Taft means is, did he restrain you with his hands, handcuffs, rope—anything like that?”

Ruth looked distinctly uncomfortable. “Oh, no. Nothing like that.”

“Not true,” Rook added smoothly. With his bulky arms folded across his chest and his shoulder leaning against the wall casually, he looked more like he was waiting in line at a fucking deli instead of acting as a witness to a crime. “I saw him grab her.”

Simmering anger in my chest ignited into an inferno. “And youlet him?”

Rook blinked back with icy blue eyes. “It looked like a marital spat. Not my business.”

Gemma rounded a furious glare his way. “How about I shove your head up your ass? Will it be your business then?”

Rook angled an amused look down, down, down to the much shorter woman. “Easy, chihuahua.”

“Chihu—” Gemma started to splutter.

The taller officer cleared his throat. “Thank you, Dr. Rook. Miss Coldwell—”

“Dr. Coldwell,” Ruth and I corrected in tandem.

The officer sighed, his patience apparently beginning to thin. “Dr.Coldwell. Apologies. Can you confirm what Dr. Rook has just indicated?”

Ruth nodded uneasily. “He did grab me a few times.”