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Jake stoodat the window watching Dana drive off. Seeing her near tears was more than enough to rattle him. She was a strong woman—always reminding him of a desert flower; wild and beautiful, and deceptively strong. Somehow managing to survive despite the inhospitable environment. He told himself she’d survive this, too.

She had to.

He was so close to having everything he’d never let himself want. With his fantasy within reach he wasn’t about to let some headshrinker take it all away. Jake knew he wasn’t wrong about Claire. She was still the girl they knew. He just needed to find a way to help her find her way back. It wouldn’t be easy considering the most recent horrors she’d witnessed, but he wasn’t in the habit of giving up on people who’d saved his life.

Without much of a plan, he found himself knocking on Claire’s door. “Claire, can I come in?”

The lock tumbled and the door creaked open enough for him to see the pale shadow of the girl he considered family. Stuffing his hands in his pockets, Jake weighed his options. He’d never been much for coddling, so he approached the situation the only way he knew how—head on.

“I may not have a bunch of letters after my name, but I don’t need to in order to see what’s right in front of me.” He pushed the door open fully and looked straight into Claire’s ice-blue eyes. “Claire, whatever this is you’re going through, I know you’re strong enough to handle it.”

She looked down, picking at the hem of her too-long sleeves. “What if I’m not?”

“Then you lean on me. I’ve got your back, kid.”

She glanced up at him, eyes full of pain. “I heard what you said about Hayes. How can you hate him and not hate me?”

“What do you mean? You’re nothing like Hayes.”

“But I am. We both made mistakes, and we were both working on making amends for them in rehab.”

“I don’t know what he said to you about his mistakes, but you’re nothing like him.”

“You may not want to see it, but he wasn’t that different from me. And just like me, he was trying to get better, trying to change.”

“People like him don’t change.”

“If you believe that, then you must believe I can’t change either.”

“That’s not what I’m saying, Claire. Why is what I think of him so important anyway?”

“Because! Hayes was like me. He understood what I was going through. He was showing me what kind of life I could have if I could finally silence these demons, because he’d done it before. But if after all he did to try to fix things, if people like you just end up hating him anyway, even after he’s gone, what’s it all for?”

Jake exhaled slowly, trying to gather his thoughts. “Claire, I’m trying to see this from your perspective, but you have to know you are nothing like Hayes. Time and time again he put himself and his agendas first and his selfish aspirations got people killed. People I cared about. I don’t know how to forgive that. Not when Hayes is the only reason they died.”

Claire cocked her head to the side, her voice suddenly an icy whisper. “But I’m the reason people die, too.”

Jake instantly regretted his choice of words. “Claire, Sadie’s death was not your fault. What happened to her was tragic, but she made her own choices. We all do.”

He hadn’t meant to bring it up, but of course Claire’s thoughts would go to her friend. Watching someone die tends to cement itself in your DNA. And yet again, Claire had watched another person die right in front of her last night. Hayes may have been getting help, but the fact that his death had inadvertently made things more difficult for Claire only made Jake hate the man even more.

Claire crossed her arms. “I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.”

Sighing, Jake started to retreat from her room, then paused, turning back to face her. “I know this might be a long shot, but do you think we can put our differences aside long enough to work together on something?”

“Depends what it is,” Claire replied.

“I’ve decided to find my father.”