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I rotate in Cole’s arms. “We have to help him. Please.”
He cups my face. “There are many ways to help him,” he says. “But everything you just said only makes me fear his instability. We have to be careful.”
“I know, but—” I cover my face again and my knees wobble.
Cole scoops me up and starts carrying me toward the backdoor. Not more than sixty seconds later, I’m in the backseat of an SUV with him, and no one else in the vehicle. “You weren’t there,” I say, rotating to face him. “You didn’t see his face.”
“Exactly,” he says. “I’m objective.”
“I’m your wife,” I say, grabbing his lapels. “You’re not objective.”
“There is not a man on the Walker team that believes he doesn’t need a further psych evaluation. He was failed, and not by us. He needs help. We’ll get that for him.” He strokes my cheek. “Protecting you comes first. Think if it was reversed.”
I catch his hand. “I know. It just—it was powerful, Cole. You heard what I told Cat?”
“I heard, sweetheart.”
“What happens now?”
“The police will want to talk to you and we could put it off, but if we want him back in a hospital, I think we need to do it tonight. If you’re up to it.”
“Yes. Tonight. I am. I’m fine. He didn’t hurt me. He scared me and then he just gutted me emotionally. Let’s talk to the police.”
Hours later, Reese, Cat, and her brother, our attorney, Reid, have all joined us at our apartment and we sit around the living room. Cole has me plastered to his side like he’s afraid Roger will come snatch me away. I’m pretty okay with that, though. My walls—gone. My defenses—gone. Tonight, I’m just going to lean on my husband.
“How did this even happen?” Reese demands, standing up to pace in front of the window.
“A paperwork issue,” Cole explains. “They let him out without informing us.”
“My ass,” Reese says. “The DA is behind this.”
“He’s pissed about the lawsuit,” Cole concedes, “but a revenge act would be foolish. What if Lori had been hurt?”
“But he would have been told Roger was cleared and safe,” Cat interjects. “Maybe he thought he’d spook us when we found out Roger was free and we didn’t know.”
“And it backfired,” Reese says, looking at Cole. “He knows we’re investigating him. This was a threat that went further than he expected. I’d bet my right arm on it.”
“I’ll be paying him a visit in the morning,” Reid says, speaking for the first time, eyeing Cole. “Care to join me?”
“I’ll be there before you,” Cole says.
“I’ll be there as well,” Reese adds.
“I want to go,” I say.
“No,” Cole declines quickly, turning to me.
“Yes,” I say. “I might be shaken, I admit that, but never have I been better ammunition for that man’s defeat.”
He studies me several long moments and then looks at the rest of the room. “I need to be alone with my wife.”
They all agree quickly, and Cat and Reese hug me. Reid gives me a stoic nod. They head to the door and Cole follows them. I grab the blanket on the couch and wrap it around me, walking to the floor-to-ceiling window wrapping the room to press my hand on the cool glass, stars twinkling in the dark sky, tiny lights in the darkness. The way Cole was my light in the darkness, but Roger has no light. He’s been cut and cut again, bleeding rivers, and I felt like I was drowning in them tonight.
I feel, rather than hear, Cole approach. He steps behind me, pressing his hands next to mine on the glass, his big, hard body a shelter I welcome. “You scared the hell out of me tonight,” he whispers by my ear.
I rotate to face him. “Please tell me you aren’t going to fight me about going to the DA’s office. I need to do this. I need to not only do this, but I need to be the best at my job I can be. I need to learn from you and do more. I need to make a difference.”
He studies me for several long moments, his expression hard then softening. “I’m not going to fight you.”
