Lori offered a polite smile when she picked up the phone to the nursing station inside the locked unit. Within a few minutes, Avery’s parents, a pretentious couple if Wade ever met one, stepped out.

“We knew you’d come,” Avery’s mother said as she grasped Bernie’s hands.

“I’d like to have some time alone with her,” Bernie told them.

“Of course, of course.” They stepped aside.

Wade expected Trina to funnel out once Bernie walked in, but she must have stayed behind.

Wade stood and offered Mrs. Grant his seat.

She took it. “He’s such a good man. I don’t know why they ever split up.”

Lori offered a polite smile.

Shannon’s smile was just as plastic.

All Wade could think was . . . how on God’s green earth did they ever get together in the first place?

Reed walked back into the waiting room after taking a phone call and returned with a man approximately the size of a small house. He smiled, scanned the room, and then narrowed his eyes on Wade.

Because House Man was with Reed, Wade offered a nod as if to say, Yeah, I’m him.

Then the strangest thing happened. The man nodded and was like, Cool.

That was it.

For what felt like the hundredth time since this whole ordeal had started, Wade enjoyed the fact that the people in Trina’s inner circle were not influenced by fame. Outside of acknowledging who he was, they didn’t do the starstruck thing that so many others did.

He liked that.

Reed waved Wade and Jeb over to an empty corner of the waiting room.

Reed pointed to his friend. “This is Rick. Rick, Wade. Jeb is his bodyguard,” he said.

“And friend,” Wade made clear.

“Of course.” Reed leaned in, lowered his voice. “Just making sure he knows who is carrying.”

Which meant Rick was.

Wow, again with the armed response.

“Let’s take this outside in the hall.”

Wade followed Reed’s gaze to find the same family that had been eyeing him all night, snickering as they watched them.

“Good idea.”

They were two steps into the hall when Reed launched into his monologue. “So here’s the plan. Someone is on Avery at all times. I’m arranging it with the hospital that one of us is in the room with her regardless of their stupid rules. Someone is with Trina like a shadow. Easy with you here”—he pointed to Wade—“but one of us three will be a breath behind you. We have reinforcements coming in to allow for rest. With the exception of you, Wade. We expect you to be on Trina like white on rice, and if that’s a problem, you need to tell us now.”

White on Trina’s rice had a very nice ring to it. “Not a problem,” he started with. “Mind telling me why this is necessary?”

Reed looked at his friend, his expression shifting from I’m on a mission to This part sucks.

“Forensics didn’t find any prints in the office.”

Wade felt a little lost. “Okay?”

“As in any. Not one. Not Avery’s, not Trina’s, not Fedor’s . . . not the maid. None!”

“Oh, hell,” Jeb said.

“Exactly,” Rick said to Jeb.

“I sing songs for a living, mind helping me catch up here?” Because it seemed the three of them were talking in a different language.

“Have you ever heard of the term ‘a cleaner,’ Wade? That would be someone hired to come in and clean up a murder scene and not leave a trace. They miss nothing. Nothing! So when something looks like a burglary and ends up without a single print . . . that means there’s something big at play,” Rick explained.

“Whoever ransacked the office at Trina’s house wasn’t there to take anything, they were there to clean up,” Reed added.

“Clean up what?”

“Only one person died in that house,” Rick said. “And it’s been closed up ever since. Now two women come in, they start shuffling through things, next thing you know one of them is in the hospital and the house is broken into. There is no way of knowing if whoever did this found what they wanted and are gone, or if they’ll be back. Until we know who hired the cleaners, we have to assume the two women shaking up the dust need protection.”

“You believe someone murdered Trina’s late husband,” Jeb concluded.

That was the moment that Wade caught up. “Trina said it was suicide.”

“Which is how it looked,” Reed said.

“Does Trina know this?”

Reed and Rick exchanged glances. “Not yet.”

Trina had never seen Bernie in person. He was even shorter in real life.

Yet the lack of height was made up for by the dread-filled concern in his eyes. “Oh, dear lord, no. Who did this to you?” he asked the second he entered the room.

Avery had opened her eyes for a short time while her parents were there and then closed them after a few seconds. “What are you doing here, Bernie?” she asked slowly.

“Oh, thank God you’re talking. Oh, darling.”

Bernie sat on the edge of the seat Avery’s mother had just vacated; his hand moved to grasp Avery’s and ended up resting on top of the exposed skin of her upper arm.

“Who did this to you? Tell me and I’ll put a hit out on them.”

For the first time since Trina had walked into the hospital, a smile started to peek out from under the bandages covering Avery’s face. “You won’t kill spiders.” A slight chuckle came from her and resulted in a cough that brought a grimace.

Trina brought a cup of water with a straw to Avery’s lips.

Bernie’s worried eyes met Trina’s.

Avery finally opened both eyes and tried to smile a second time. “Who told you I was here?”

“Adeline called me.”

“My mother should have left you alone.”

“For once I’m grateful for her meddling. Oh, Avery . . .” He said her name with a sigh. “I know you’re not mine anymore, but I do still love you.”

Bernie glanced at Trina before focusing on Avery.

“Bernie . . . Trina knows. You don’t have to pretend.”

Trina felt her heart skip a beat. “The nurse just gave her more pain medication. I think it’s working,” Trina told Bernie in hopes that he wouldn’t question what she knew and didn’t know.

“Oh, please, Trina.”

“No matter,” Bernie said. “I care, and I’m here if you need anything.”

Avery’s eyes started to close and stay that way. “I’m okay.”

Bernie huffed in disbelief. Before he could say another word, Avery’s mouth slacked open and her breathing evened out as she fell fast asleep.

Trina nodded toward the door and encouraged Bernie to follow. He did, but not before he kissed Avery’s exposed cheek.

Once they walked out of the room, Trina reached her hand out to shake his. “I’m Trina.”

“Bernie, Avery’s ex-husband.”

“It was sweet of you to stop by.”

He shifted from foot to foot. “I’m not sure what she told you about me, but—”

Trina interrupted him. “That you were both hasty in getting married and realized a long-lasting romantic love wasn’t going to work.”

Bernie looked relieved. “I would imagine that bump to her head has her saying strange things,” he offered.

“Nothing I haven’t expected.”

Bernie paused and nodded. “It’s probably best not to leave her alone with her parents until she’s less . . . medicated.”

“I agree,” Trina said. “Lori and I are taking turns.”

With those final words, Bernie’s understanding seemed to come into focus. Alliance had a strict code of silence, but their unstated conversation became perfectly clear to both of them.

He reached for Trina’s hands and squeezed them. “I do care deeply for her. Please keep me informed.”

“I will.”

Trina watched Bernie’s back as he walked out of the ICU. When the door opened, she saw one of the detectives from the previous night standing in the doorway.

The hair on her neck stood up. There wasn’t any way of knowing what Avery would say to the police in her drugged state. If word got out about Avery’s fake marriage to Bernie, and someone followed that bouncing ball, it stood to reason that the police would question her about Fedor.

She turned to Doug, the nurse who had been taking care of Avery since the early morning hours. “Excuse me.”

Doug looked up from the chart he was working on.

“I’m going to step out for a while.” She glanced behind her at the approaching detectives. “She’s really tired and could take a break from visitors,” she told the nurse.

Doug stood. “I’ll check on her.”

Trina headed Detective Gray off. “Good afternoon, gentlemen.”

“Mrs. Petrov.”

“We’d like a few words with Ms. Grant.”

“She’s exhausted.”

Armstrong looked over his shoulder toward the closed door to the ICU. “It appears she’s had plenty of visitors today.”

Maybe it was luck, or perhaps Doug caught on to Trina’s need, but the nurse left Avery’s room and stopped the men from entering.