Moby shook his head and left, and Zoe closed the door behind him. She turned to Rahzel fiercely.

"So how badly hurt is Brodi?"

"Pardon?"

"You mentioned at least twice that Brodi is afraid she'll hurt someone. How badly hurt is he? He's still recovering from his accident, for the love of Mike; it wouldn't take much to hurt him right now."

Rahzel walked over to his desk and sat down in his chair. "Zoe, he's fine."

"That's BS and you know it. Brodi doesn't make assumptions about people. If he's afraid she'll hurt someone, then she's already hurt him in some way. And EVERYBODY has already heard about his drinking episode yesterday. Zen doesn't drink. Something happened to really mess with that zen head of his."

Rahzel leaned back in his chair and pondered the young woman pacing in front of him.

"I promise you he's fine. I told you why he's keeping a low profile. Besides, you know Elise hasn't let him out of her sight since he left the hospital. She's taking care of him."

Zoe snorted. "Yeah. Poor boy."

"I, uh, don't think he really minds, Zoe."

Zoe considered this. "Yeah, prolly not. Even I have to admit they're cute together, in a Barbie and Ken sort of way. But all the same: I know he had a serious injury and had an aggressive bout of pneumonia; hell, we almost lost him twice. But we're STILL treating him like he's made of glass. That would drive me crazy. And if we were honest with ourselves, we'd probably see that it does him too. And don't even get me started on Elise—the mother bear treating him like her cub."

"Do you HAVE a point to make, Payne?"

"Yes. I want you to answer my question. Honestly."

Rahzel pressed his hand against his forehead. There were times when he felt like he was running a middle school and not a professional sports circuit, and it definitely wasn't doing his blood pressure any good.

"Look, he was hurt, ten years ago, in college. And it was a bad situation that involved this girl, her boyfriend, and at least one other person. He dealt with it just fine, until yesterday when she decided to turn crazed stalker. Satisfied?"

Zoe stepped back once and folded her arms in front of her. "That he has a crazy woman after him? Hardly. That you finally answered my question, and before I had to threaten to shred you office? Yes, I'm satisfied."

Zoe turned for the door, then paused for a moment before opening it. "Look, I won't tell anyone. Not even Brodi. If he wants to tell me, he will, in his own time. It's just—he's like my big brother, y'know? He's always the one who has it all together; it's just a little Twilight Zone to know that he's been seriously unnerved by something."

"He IS human, Zoe."

Zoe snickered. "Tell that to Eli…HEY!"

Zoe narrowly avoided getting her hand hit by the door flying open as she jumped out of the way. Nate ran in looking agitated—quite an accomplishment for the normally unflappable cowboy.

"Rahzel. You're going to want to see this."

Rahzel and Zoe looked at each other quizzically then followed Nate back out into the hall. From there they made their way down to the lobby, were they saw a security detail running up the stairs. Alarmed, it was all the encouragement they needed to keep up with Nate's pace.

As they neared te top of the stairs, the security guard at the rear held a hand for them to stop. Rahzel could see the problem from where he was standing. Brodi's room was almost to the end of the hall on the right, and he could see Elise on the floor, not moving. Rahzel swallowed hard. Standing over her with a knife in hand was Lauryll.

"What's going on?" asked Zoe, too short to see over the wall of security guards.

"It's Lauryll. Beyond that I can't really tell."

He heard Zoe grumble something, but his attention was drawn away by the lead security officer heading up to him.

"It's the woman removed yesterday, sir. She's demanding to speak to Mr. Ford."

Rahzel nodded. "And if we don't allow that to happen?"

The guard looked Rahzel right in the eye. "Then she says she's going to kill Miss Riggs."

"Is Elise hurt?" Rahzel said over a commotion he vaguely recognized as Nate struggling to hold Zoe back.

"Can't tell, sir. She hasn't let us close enough to see. The police are on their way; I've asked them to come without sirens to avoid alerting her to their presence."

"Mind if I talk to her?"

The guard nodded. "She doesn't appear to have any weapons other than the knife. As long as you keep your distance—stand with me. We don't want to spook her, and I don't want to risk her gaining another hostage."

"I'd agree with that." Rahzel looked back to Zoe and Nate. "You two wait here. I'll take care of it."

Nate nodded and got a firmer grip on Zoe, whispering something to her tat Rahzel didn't catch. Rahzel walked up to the top of the stairs and started to walk down the hall to where Lauryll stood.

"Unless you're someone who can talk some sense into these guards, you'd better not come any closer."

"Lauryll," Rahzel called out in his best Dad voice. "I might be able to help. What can I do for you?"

Lauryll dropped down into a crouch over Elise, who still lay unmoving. "You know my name. How about we make this fair and you tell me yours?"

"I'm Rahzel. I help organize the events here and make sure the boarders are taken care of."

Lauryll pointed the tip of he knife towards Elise. Damn that thing looked mean—he wished she would stop getting it so near Elise.

"She a boarder?"

"Elise? Yeah. Can you let me take a look at her? I just want to make sure she's not hurt."

"No one gets near her until someone brings Brodi Ford to me." She looked down at Elise, then back up at Rahzel. "She's not hurt. I just knocked her out. With drugs, not a knock to the head."

Rahzel nodded. "OK, OK. I understand. How about I send someone up to get Brodi? He wasn't feeling well last night, so I made him spend the night in someone's room in case we needed to take him to the hospital."

Lauryll looked up sharply. "Whose room?"

"Logan!" Rahzel called. "Can you come up here?"

"Yes sir!" he called, heading up the stairs.

"Whose room?"

"Nate's room. Nate, you left Brodi sleeping in your room, right?"

To Nate's credit, he caught on without a pause. "Yeah, he's there."

"Will you go get him and tell him there's a young lady here to see him?"

Nate nodded and took a step back in the direction of the stairs.

"Wait!"

Nate froze in place as he waited for Lauryll to continue.

"He takes that jacket off too. I want nothing on you but that t-shirt, cowboy. And you'll stay on te far wall as you pass me. I even think you're coming towards me, and the blonde princess gets filleted. Got it?"

"Absolutely, ma'am."

Nate took off his jacket and his button-down, throwing them on the floor beside him. Then he raised his t-shirt up to show her there was nothing underneath. Then he walked by her, back to the wall as he passed her. Then he disappeared around the corner and started up the stairs to the next floor.