“What time is it?” she asked.

“Why’d you come to the hospital?” he asked back and watched her body lock. There was only one lamp lit in the living room but he saw it lock to statue-still as the confusion and sleep swept out of her face and she went on alert.

“Sorry?”

“When I was shot, why’d you come to the hospital?”

She straightened her shoulders. This took effort, he could tell, but she did it. It also took time. Just a bit of it but enough for her to come up with a believable lie.

“You were at Jarrod’s hospital and I just happened to be –”

He cut her off. “Bullshit, Roc, you left Jarrod two months ago.”

He watched her lips thin and she glared at him.

Then she whispered, “Merry,” and he knew he’d thrown Merry right under the bus. He also didn’t care.

“Why’d you come to the hospital?” he repeated.

“Why are you here?” she asked.

“Answer me, Rocky.”

She crossed her arms on her chest. “Go home, Layne.”

“Okay, you don’t wanna answer that,” he shrugged, took a step toward her and stopped, “then why’d you come by this morning?”

“I think you ate the reason why tonight,” she answered.

“Bullshit again, Raquel. You know Merry and I talked tonight.”

“Yes, well,” she threw a hand out and then crossed it right back on her chest, “I had an alternate reason for coming to your house this morning. After your fond farewell, however, I decided I no longer have that reason.”

He took another step toward her and she held her ground but her eyes flashed their warning and he stopped.

“We should talk about that,” he said softly.

“Oh no. No we shouldn’t. I think you said enough this morning.”

“Rocky, you showed up out of the blue, stormed into my house, fed my dog, made me a cup of coffee, gave my boy advice on what to have for breakfast and I haven’t spoken to you in eighteen years except groggy in a hospital bed after being shot three times,” he reminded her.

“Yes, I can see that’s reasonable, now that you explain it. I can see why you’d speak to me that way considering I…” she leaned in and finished on a hiss, “made you a cup of coffee.”

“You’re bullshitting me again,” he told her. “You get what I’m sayin’ to you.”

She shook her head and said, “Go home, Layne.”

“We gotta put this behind us, for your Dad and your brother.”

“I tried to do that this morning. It didn’t work. Once bitten, twice shy. I think the avoiding each other tactic is a better strategy. Let’s go back to that.”

“You didn’t try to do that this morning, Rocky. You came by, olive branch extended, but only so you could soften me up for the blows you’d deliver later.”

Her upper body jerked back. “What?”

“Rutledge?”

She looked away but when her eyes came back to him, they were narrowed. In that second, she’d braced for attack and she’d dug in. He knew it.

“That’s none of your business.”

“That wasn’t what Merry told me tonight. He told me you were looking for firepower.”

“Yes, but like I said, after our chat by my car, I’m no longer looking for that. Not from you.”

“And who’s gonna take your back in this crusade, Roc? ‘Cause trust me, sweetcheeks, you go in without backup, you are gonna be f**ked.”

Her face turned to marble before her lips moved. “I’ll be fine.”

“You’ll be f**ked.”

She leaned in again. “I’ll be fine.”

“Lotsa reasons a dirty cop goes dirty. But unlike a criminal, he’s got more reasons not to get caught. He gets caught, he loses everything. He loses face, he loses family, he loses respect, he loses his badge, he loses his career and he goes to a place he does not wanna go. Boys in prison, they don’t like cops. He’s either dead or he’ll wanna be. That means a dirty cop who hasn’t made all he needs to break away clean and disappear is gonna get antsy when he feels heat. And by antsy, I mean desperate.”

When she replied, she did it quickly and quietly. “I know that.”

“I know you know that which makes me wonder, your Dad uses a cane when it rains but is reminded every day when he wakes up alone, why you’d put that shit out there for him to experience again.”

He heard her suck in breath.

Merry told him to go easy on her but he had no intention of doing that. Too much was at stake.

“Carson Fisher was dead three days after he was sent down,” he reminded her.

“Layne –”

“Shiv to the gut, they didn’t twist it, they yanked it straight through him, straight through his heart. He bled out about a second after he hit the ground.”

“Be quiet,” she whispered.

Layne wasn’t quiet. “Your Mom went down so he could avoid that.”

“Be quiet,” she whispered louder.

“Your Dad went down for the same reason.”

“Stop it, Layne.”

“I went down six weeks ago for the same f**kin’ reason, Rocky.”

Her arms uncrossed, she leaned forward sharply and she yelled, “Stop it, Layne!”

“Merry doesn’t want you out there with Rutledge and I figure your Dad doesn’t know about this but if he did, he wouldn’t want you out there either.”

“You forget, Layne, that Dad knew exactly what you’re telling me and he still stayed on Fisher,” she shot back.

“True enough but he had no idea he was puttin’ more than his ass on the line. You asked him now, I bet he’d tell you he’d stand down.”

“Then you don’t know my father very well,” she returned.

He had to admit, she was probably right about that. She was also wrong about it.

“He f**ked up,” Layne told her.

“He did not, he did the right thing. Shit like that happens to cops every day. He knew the score, so did Mom.”

“You sure about that?”

“Absolutely.”

“Got yourself all talked into it, then,” he noted.

“Go to hell, Layne.”

“Sweetcheeks, your Dad thought Cecilia or you were in danger, he would have done things differently.”

“He wouldn’t stand down.”

“No, but he would have made you safe.”