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“Back so soon?” Trina strides toward us, forehead lining in confusion.

“Jesus, guys.” Antonio shakes his head like a disappointed father. “Are you all planning on renting out a room?”

I cross my arms over my chest. “I actually need to tell you something about Theo.”

The light atmosphere evaporates faster than morning dew. Both officers’ expressions shift into serious cop mode.

Antonio runs a hand over his face. “Follow me.”

We start moving toward the back of the station, but Trina holds up a hand when the guys step forward.

“Nope. Just Callie.”

“Like hell.” Jax’s voice is hard and stubborn. “We’re coming with her.”

“This isn’t a democracy, Williams.” Trina’s tone brooks no argument. “If Callie has something to tell us, she can tell us alone.”

Maybe they think the guys are influencing me to say something to get them off.

Knox’s jaw ticks, and tension radiates off all three of them. My chest tightens. I want to reach for them, to tell them it’s okay, but instead I square my shoulders. They’ll fight to stay with me if I don’t stop them.

“I’ll be fine.” The words come out steadier than I feel. “Just stay here, okay?”

Brax searches my face, fingers curling into a fist, like he’s stopping himself from grabbing me and hauling me against his chest. “We’ll be right here when you’re done.” His brothers relent, deciding it’s better to agree than continue to fight. That will only end up with them in a cell for picking a fight with an officer.

The interrogation room is depressing. Beige walls, metal table, chairs that have seen better decades. I slide into the seat facing the two-way mirror, my reflection staring back at me with wide, worried eyes.

Trina settles across from me while Antonio leans against the wall, arms crossed. The silence stretches for exactly three seconds before my mouth decides to take matters into its own hands.

“I think Theo was mixed up with loan sharks.” The words tumble out in a rush. “He kept getting these texts that would make him all jumpy and paranoid. And toward the end of our relationship, before I left the city, he was being so sketchy about money. Always checking his bank account, always nervous about something. He had this art show. My art show, actually, since he stole all my work.” I pause to suck in a breath, realizing I’ve been word-vomiting all over them. Trina’s pen scratches across her notepad while Antonio studies me like he’s taking my measure.

Trina looks up from her notes. “Did you see any of these texts?”

“I saw a few. They were pretty threatening. Basically give us the money or else. He told me it was a scam. I believed him, but the messages kept coming. He was adamant that it was nothing, but he’d kind of freak out every time he got a message.” I lean forward, desperate for them to understand.

“Two guys came into The Bar the other night looking for him, too.”

“What did they look like?”

I do my best to describe them and Trina jots down more notes while I continue to ramble. “Look, Theo was a pretentious asshole. He pissed people off all the time, and if these people killed him⁠—”

The rest of my sentence hangs in the air. Antonio and Trina exchange one of those wordless cop looks that I can’t read. Do they trust what I’m telling them? Do they think the guys set me up to say all this?

“Well?” The word explodes out of me. I’d never act like this with cops I didn’t know, but I’ve known these two forever. “Are you going to look into it or what?”

“We’ll look into it.” Trina’s voice is carefully neutral, but something flickers across her face. “His phone was missing.”

Antonio pushes off the wall, moving closer to the table. “Which supports the theory about someone wanting to eliminate evidence.”

“So maybe the loan sharks took the evidence, but you can pull phone records, right?” I grip the edge of the table so hard my knuckles go white. “I swear, Trina. I think he was being hunted by people he owed debts to. They’re the murderers. Not the guys. Do you really think they’d kill someone?”

Trina closes her notepad with a sharp snap. “Callie, I think those men would do anything to protect you.”

I bite my cheek to keep from arguing with her. The truth is, she’s not wrong. The guys are super protective. But I know them. “They didn’t do this.”

She twists her lips to the side. She’s not convinced. Not yet.

“Just look into the messages, okay?”