While all that was true, Trina felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end when Lori delivered the information in her lawyer voice.

Armstrong scribbled in his notebook.

“Gentlemen. If that’s all, I think it would be good for all of us to get some rest. We’ve been up for over twenty-four hours.” Lori cut everything off.

The officers exchanged looks.

Trina was too tired to figure out what had gotten up Lori’s butt.

“You’re Wade Thomas,” Detective Gray said as if he was just figuring it out.

“Yeah, we talked about this a few hours ago,” Wade said.

Trina looked up at Wade, then back to the officer talking.

“So you two are . . . dating?” he asked.

Wade opened his mouth and Lori stepped in front of him.

“Are you a fan, Detective?” Lori asked.

Gray tilted his head. “No. I’m more of a Guns N’ Roses guy. I just, ah . . . I don’t know. The man who owned all this is dead for only a year.” His eyes traveled to Trina.

“Okay, that’s enough!” Lori pushed Trina and Wade out of the room.

“You’re out of line.” Wade pointed two fingers at the detective.

Reed moved to stand beside Lori.

“Okay, everyone, relax. We’re just doing our job.” Gray looked at Reed. “You of all people should know that.”

“Yeah, I do. If you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking . . . you’re digging in the wrong hole.”

Trina’s head spun while she tried to catch up on the hidden conversation running all around her.

“We’re going to go upstairs and get some sleep. If you gentlemen have any more questions, you make sure and wake both of us.” Lori pointed between herself and Trina.

Gray started to grin . . . and not the kind of grin that made you smile, but the kind that made you worry. “You’re a lawyer.”

“Very perceptive, Officer. And he’s a famous singer,” she said, pointing to Wade. “And he’s an ex-detective, and before the end of the day, you might meet the former first lady of California and a duke. Friends in this circle are seldom the gardener.”

Detective Gray stepped back. “Yes, ma’am.”

They were several feet away when Trina turned to Lori. “What the hell was that all about?”

“They were questioning you like a suspect,” Reed answered for Lori.

“What? Me? Why?” She started to turn around.

Wade redirected her toward the house. “Another time, darlin’. You need to sleep.”

Within half an hour, Trina sat curled in her bed, with Lori sitting beside her.

“I’m not guilty of anything, Lori.”

“I know that.”

“Other than not loving my husband.”

“I know that, too. But keep that to yourself, Trina. It will only raise suspicion.”

“This is all so wrong. Everything about this is just wrong,” she cried.

Lori patted her knee. “Get some sleep, even a few hours will clear your head.”

“We should be at the hospital.” Yet even as Trina said those words, she knew if she didn’t get a few hours of horizontal time, she’d only make herself sick.

Lori grasped Trina’s hands.

“What room did Wade take?”

“Across the hall. He left his door open, so if you need anything . . .”

“This is so unfair to him. We barely know each other.”

Lori smiled. “Maybe, but he doesn’t seem to be itching to leave. Which says a lot about his character.”

“I told you he was a good guy.”

Lori patted her hand. “Get some sleep.”

She didn’t have to be told twice. Lori left the room, and her head hit the pillow and she was gone.

Nightmares startled her awake almost as quickly as she’d fallen asleep.

Her door shot open and Wade crossed the room in a pair of boxer shorts.

“What was that?” She looked around the room, expecting to see that something had crashed to the floor.

“It was you,” Wade said while he sat on the edge of the bed.

“How long have I been asleep?”

“Not long enough, hon.” He brushed her hair from her eyes and smiled.

“I’m sorry about all this . . . you don’t deserve—”

“Shh, stop, stop.” He crawled on top of the covers and pulled her head to his chest. “Go back to sleep.”

“This is all wrong.”

He stroked the side of her hair, and the heaviness of her eyes pulled her under.

“Shh, I’m right here. It’s okay.”

Chapter Twenty

Wade booked several suites at the closest hotel to the hospital where Avery was recuperating. He’d called Ike and asked him to pack a bag and get it to the hotel as soon as a plane could fly it out. While Trina was at Avery’s bedside, Wade took a moment and called his mother so she wouldn’t worry.

She was already beside herself.

“You left in the middle of your own party, that isn’t like you. I don’t like what this woman is doing to your head.”

“Did you miss the part about how her best friend was beaten within an inch of her life and is in the ICU?” It was unlike his mother to be so cold.

“No, I didn’t miss that, Wade. And don’t take that tone with me. I’m not heartless. I just don’t see how any of this is your problem. How long have you known this woman, a couple of weeks?”

Wade was starting to see the end of his rope with the conversation, and they had only been talking for five minutes. “Someone I know very well once told me to follow my gut when I was hungry and my heart when someone made me smile. Well, Trina makes me smile.”

“I didn’t say that, I said follow your gut when it came to women and leave the heart out of it, that organ only gets you into trouble.” Ahh, there his mother was.

He chuckled. “Spoken like a scorned woman.”

“Your father left for cigarettes and never came back.”

“I’ve heard the story. I even wrote a song about it.”

Vicki sighed. “I worry.”

“I’m fine.”

“Women have always wanted to get at your money.”

He switched his cell phone to his other hand and turned away from a group of people that were walking out of the elevator. “I promise you, Trina isn’t like that.”

“Oh, and who paid for the emergency flight to New York?”

His mother was trying hard to find fault. “Neither one of us. She knows someone with a private jet.”

“Oh, that’s right . . . she’s a flight attendant.”

He didn’t see this conversation ending until he gave his mother enough to nibble on.

“You know how much I hate it when people name-drop to get what they want?”

“W-what? Yes, and what does that have to do with this conversation?” she stuttered.

“Everson Oil, Mama. Trina is worth more than I am. She isn’t using me. We met, we’re both attracted and would like to see where this goes. There is nothing for you to worry about, so I’m going to ask that you end this entire conversation.”

The line was silent.

“Mom?”

“Fine.”

When a woman said fine, it was never fine. “I love you for your concern. Hold down the ranch a little longer without me.”

“If I must.”

Wade wanted to laugh. “Bye, Mother.”

“You know I hate it when you call me Mother.”

He chuckled. “Well, stop acting like a mother and more like my mama.”

“You always were ornery when you had your mind set on something.”

“Yeah, remind you of someone you know?”

“Wade Michael Thomas!”

Ohhh, the middle name.

Wade laughed.

“Bye, Mama.”

She backed down. “Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

The waiting room had started to fill with nearly a dozen of Avery’s friends and family. Trina was back in the unit with Avery’s parents for the brief visit until they were all kicked out again. Wade poured himself his fifth cup of coffee for the day and was walking back toward his seat next to Lori when a short, balding, middle-aged man nearly knocked him over to get to Lori. Coffee splashed on his hand.

“Oh my God, how is she?”

“Bernie . . . what are you doing here?” Lori stood when the man approached.

“I got here as fast as I could. Is she okay? What happened?”

Lori glanced around before she encouraged the man to walk beside her as they left the waiting room.

Wade watched them disappear before taking his seat next to Shannon.

“Who is that?” Wade asked.

“That’s Bernie . . . Avery’s ex-husband.”

Wade choked on the coffee he’d just placed in his mouth. Full-on spat the coffee onto his shirt like he didn’t understand the concept of swallowing hot liquid.

“W-what?”

Shannon pulled a tissue from her purse and handed it to him. “Yeah, not shocking it didn’t work out.”

Bernie looked more like an older uncle, a father . . . maybe a brother from a different marriage. But Avery’s husband? Oh, hell no.

The man was talking in hushed whispers to Lori across the room, but his eyes kept gravitating toward the door to the ICU. The man was clearly concerned. “Let me see what I can do,” Wade heard Lori say.