1 Chapter 1

1

The e-mail came in the middle of the night.

It was purely by chance that I was even awake to hear the chime. I’d been out the evening before, celebrating. Clarissa Deveraux had joined the ranks at Marley, Leonard, and Smith, the law firm where I was a junior partner. The senior partners had hosted a welcome dinner at an upscale restaurant, there was an open bar, and several glasses of good wine had a full bladder interrupting my sleep. I was just crawling back into bed, bleary-eyed and half asleep, when my cell gave a ding from where it was charging on the bedside table. I almost ignored it, but curiosity got the better of me, and even though I expected it to be spam, I decided to check.

I smiled when I saw it was from Josie. That woman amused the hell out of me, when she wasn’t trying my patience, and I always loved seeing an e-mail from her in my inbox. I’d never met her in person and most likely never would. The internet brought us together. We followed some of the same blogs, and a chance e-mail two years ago had started a friendship I valued greatly. Not a day went by that I didn’t hear from her. In fact, we usually e-mailed multiple times. We’d found we had a whole hell of a lot in common. There was only a six-year age difference, and our interests, feelings, and desires matched up nearly perfectly. Josie was a bright spot in my day.

My sleepy brain finally caught up with the program and did the mental math between time zones. It was only six o’clock in the morning there, which was early for her to start the e-mails. Something must be going on. When I thumbed open the e-mail, I saw the subject line and worry shot through my veins. Not only was there actual words there—we both had a bad habit of leaving it blank—but it simply said Bad News.

I sat up and snapped on the bedside light. Though it was from Josie’s e-mail account, the message itself was written by her brother. With each word, dread filled my stomach and made bile rise in my throat. I had to close my eyes and breathe carefully to get myself back under control. My heart was pounding so hard I thought it might burst.

Ben,

Josie made me promise to let you know if anything happened to her. Last night, she fell down the stairs and is pretty seriously injured. There’s some swelling in her brain, and she hasn’t woken up yet. The doctor is doing what he can. Her vitals are good. I’ll keep you updated.

Zack

There was a postscript with his phone number and a message to call if I wanted. I very nearly dialed it right that second. But it was so early, and he probably had enough to deal with at the moment. I should give him some time before I called and found out what the fuck was going on.

I was worried. It couldn’t be good that Josie was still unconscious. With the burst of adrenaline keeping me wide awake, I left the bedroom and headed into my office. A few clicks and my laptop was booted up, and I was searching for information on head injuries. What I found was disconcerting to say the least. I took comfort in the fact that Josie lived near, and was a nurse at, a renowned hospital. I had to believe she was getting the best possible care.

I let an hour pass before the worry got the better of me and I called the number Josie’s brother had left. As the phone continued to ring, I thought I’d have to leave a message. But just before it went to voicemail, the ringing stopped.

“‘lo?” a raspy voice answered.

Christ, he sounded wrecked. “This is Ben Winters. Is this Zack?”

“Yeah. Hi. Sorry.” Zack cleared his throat. I didn’t know what he was apologizing for, but he certainly didn’t need to.

“How is she?”

There was a pause. “Same. Still unconscious. I don’t… She’s hurt.”

If I didn’t know Zack was only ten years younger than Josie, I would have guessed much younger. He sounded so lost. I really just wanted to hug him. I could do with a hug myself, for that matter. I took a deep breath.

“Can I ask what happened?” I queried carefully.

“She was taking out the trash. I don’t exactly know what—” He cut himself off with a broken sound that tugged at my heart. “I got home at about seven last night and found her on the steps outside, unconscious and bleeding. The steps are concrete and her forehead…”

I knew that they lived in adjoining duplexes, and that their parents had passed several years ago. Josie often spoke of how close she was with Zack. He was the only blood family she had left. Fortunately for them, they got along really well. It had to be hard for him to be dealing with this.