Hank looked at me, nodded and gave me an encouraging wink.

I felt relief flood through me. I was doing the right thing by keeping him talking.

“Harper’s boys are behind bars,” Bil y said.

“That was the other ones, he’s sent more after you. Bil y, you have to go. You have to get out of town. Harper wants his money back. He’s going to find you.”

“How do you know this shit? God dammit! Did Detective Nightingale tel you?” Bil y asked.

“Bil y –”

“What else has he been tel in’ you? Don’t believe him, Roxie. Don’t believe a thing out of that lyin’ pig’s mouth.” I sat up straight.

Um… I did not think so.

“Don’t you cal Hank a pig!” I snapped.

“Don’t defend him to me, you whore.”

Now, this was how I was used to fighting.

I threw the covers back and shot out of bed.

“Don’t cal me a whore,” I yel ed.

“You left my bed two weeks ago, you bitch. Now you’re f**kin’ some cop. That’s the goddamned definition of whore!”

“It was my bed, you idiot. You were my roommate and for some stupid reason, do not ask me why, I let you sleep there.”

“You let… you let me sleep there? You were beggin’ for it when I first met you.”

“I was begging for it? You have a creative memory, Bil y.” Even Bil y, completely unhinged, couldn’t fight that one.

“I wasn’t your f**kin’ roommate. You’re my woman!”

“I haven’t been your woman for three years, you moron!” I shouted.

“How you figure that?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” I got sarcastic. “Maybe it was when I put your shit in the hal and changed the locks. Or, when I left you, like a billion times, writing you a note saying it was over. Or, maybe it was when I didn’t let you put your filthy, stinking hands on me for the last eighteen months! That’s how I figure it!” I shrieked

While I was yel ing, there was a knock on the door. Hank kept the phone in the crook of his neck, buttoned up his jeans and opened it. Mom and Dad stood there, Dad wearing his jammies, Mom tightly bundled in a robe. Hank stopped them from saying anything by lifting a hand and they stared at me, their faces worried.

“You don’t want to leave me, Roxie. You know you don’t, you always came back.”

“I’ve been trying to leave you for three years, Bil y. You’ve just been too f**king stupid to figure it out.” His voice changed, got quiet, went low. “Don’t cal me stupid.”

“Bil y, we’re over. O… v… e… r.”

“We’re not over, Roxie.”

“Yes we are.”

He went silent.

I waited.

Then he said, “Fuck him, Roxie. Fuck him good tonight.

Give him a piece of your fine ass he’l never forget. Go down on him, you’re good at that. I remember your mouth, so f**kin’ sweet.”

I swal owed and glanced at Hank. His face was like stone, his body completely stil , the fury was coming off him like a physical thing and charging the air.

I realized then that Hank was listening. How he was, I didn’t know, but he was listening.

Good God.

“Bil y. You’ve got to –”

Bil y cut me off. “‘Cause tomorrow, you’l be with me.

Tomorrow, he’l be lyin’ in bed wondering where your sweet mouth is. And you and me… I’l make you forget him, Roxie.

We’l be gone and you’l forget and it’l only be you and me.”

“I’l never go with you,” I said but I said it to nothing, he’d disconnected.

I flipped my phone shut, tossed it on the nightstand and looked at Hank.

Hank was staring at me but he talked into the phone.

“You get him?” he paused. “Yeah. Keep me informed.” Then he snapped his phone shut, threw his on the nightstand too and said, “He’s in Colorado Springs.” I stood across the room from Hank and my parents, trembling and watching Hank, wondering what he was thinking, wondering if now, after hearing what he heard, he’d not only let me go, but ask me to go.

“Colorado Springs?” Mom asked. “What’s he doing there?”

“On the run. He knows Harper’s boys are after him and he’s not stayin’ anywhere long,” Hank told Mom then looked at me. “Vance is in C Springs, fol owed him down there.

You kept him on the line long enough, they got a lock on his position. Vance is headin’ there now.”

I nodded.

“Thank the Sweet Lord Jesus,” Mom said.

“Atta girl, Roxie,” Dad said.

I ignored Mom and Dad.

“Were you listening?” I asked Hank.

“Yeah. When I found out about the cal this afternoon, I told Lee and the boys have been monitoring your phone.

They put it on speaker. You okay?” Hank asked me.

“No,” I said.

No, no, real y just no. He’d heard it and he wasn’t coming to me. I was standing across the room in nothing but a nightie, scared and trembling, and he made no move to me.

I knew this would happen. He didn’t even want to be near me.

Hank looked angry, he looked so angry, he looked about ready to commit murder. He looked like he was expending every effort not to lose control. If he’d let go and started ripping the room apart, I wouldn’t have been surprised

“Are you okay?” I asked Hank.

He didn’t answer for a beat.

Then he spoke. “I’m gonna kil that motherfucker,” his voice was so low, an edge sliced through it.

My head jerked at his words and I winced. I’d heard them many a time before but the way Hank said them made me believe him.

“Whisky –”

“Get over here,” he ordered.

I blinked. “What?” I asked.

“Get over here,” he repeated.

I stared at him.

Then I skirted the bed and walked to him.

The minute I got within arm’s reach, he snatched me to his body and his arms went around me so tight, for the first time in days, my ribs hurt.

“Whisky, my ribs,” I breathed.

His arms didn’t loosen.

“He isn’t gonna touch you,” Hank said to the top of my head.

“Okay… um, Hank… my ribs.”

“He isn’t gonna get near you.”

I realized what was happening.

He had been making every effort to stay in control. So much so, he’d been physical y unable to move.