JENNIE

In a small windowed room at the police station, Lisa moved a stack of paperwork from a chair to a desk with an engraved placard that read Detective Cooper.

Lisa gestured at the seat. "Sit. Coop should be here any minute."

I sat. The chair wobbled. Without a word, Lisa fixed it with a magazine under one leg. On the drive over, she'd also been quiet. Next, she straightened the stack of papers she'd moved and flipped open the top file folder.

"Should you be looking at that?" I asked.

"Nope," Detective Cooper answered, entering the office and closing the door behind him. "Hands off, Fish."

I followed the detective with my eyes as he sat at his computer. "Fish?"

"Always in the damn water," Cooper muttered. "Swimming, surfing, sailing—"

"They're called hobbies," Lisa said. "You should try getting one."

"Do I look like a thirteen-year-old girl?" Cooper shook his computer mouse, and the screen lit up. "I got enough bullshit to deal with on an hourly basis."

At Cooper's bookshelf, Lisa picked up a worn paperback with a rifle target and blood splatter on the cover. "Like read crime fiction?"

"What?" Cooper shrugged. "I enjoy them."

"No, you don't." Lisa glanced over her shoulder at the detective. "You read them so you can rip the story to shreds for its inaccuracies. Gives your black heart an excuse to get angry."

"How do you two know each other again?" I asked.

"High school," they answered in unison.

So they were around the same age. Truth be told, I was more interested in hearing what Lisa was like as a teen than recounting the distressing events of the night before.

"Can we get started?" I asked. "I'm hosting a big event tonight, so I don't have a lot of time."

"Got it." Cooper sat back in his seat and looked to Lisa. "I'll take Jennie's statement first. You can go."

Lisa turned, her expression crestfallen. "I'm not going anywhere."

"That's not up to you. It's Jennie's call." Cooper opened a notepad on his desk, wet the tip of his index finger, and flipped the page. "Some of my guys are headed over to the crime scene now—"

"The crime scene?" I asked. "You mean my office?"

"Yep. They'll brief your boss on last night's events."

For the first time, I wondered if Taehyung should be here. I needed to call and fill him in. And how would he react to hearing I'd spent the night with another person?

He wouldn't hear it at all. It wasn't the kind of honesty that served any purpose. And we weren't the kind of couple that needed to share every damn thing.

A statement was fairly straightforward anyway.

Lisa cleared books from a wood chair in one corner and picked it up by its seatback.

"That's not sturdy," Cooper warned.

Lisa placed the chair next to mine, still gripping the back. "I'd like us to give our statements together."

I wanted Lisa there. Just her presence comforted me. And her association with Cooper made this a safe space. "Stay."

Her hardened features eased and her hand twitched, as if she'd been about to reach for me. Instead, she took a seat so each of us faced the desk.

Cooper heaved a sigh and opened a drawer. "Alvarez number two is now in custody for violating his parole," he explained, rummaging through the drawer. "He not only had a gun on him, but cocaine as well. Dumbass. Since he's a felon, he's going to get it even worse." Cooper looked from me to Lisa. "Between us, he'll probably take a plea bargain."

"What about retaliation?" Lisa asked.

"Unlikely at this point." Cooper shook his head. "When Lou and Mark went away, their gang fragmented. I've heard rumblings they think Mark gave the cops info to reduce his charges. It's not true, but that doesn't matter. The Alvarez family is out, and that's why Mark is so worked up. He's got no one left."

"So you don't think they'll come after us?" I asked.

"They got no reason to stir up trouble with our department for two guys who'll be locked up for a while. But first, let's make sure Mark stays put."

The detective held up a tape recorder, hit a button, and spoke into it. "Witnesses Jennie Kim and Pranpriya Manoban, incident involving Mark B. Alvarez on May seventeenth," he said into the recorder.

May seventeenth? I'd completely forgotten it was almost my thirtieth birthday. I supposed that everyone else had, too, since nobody had mentioned it.

"All right, Miss Kim," he began.

"Jennie, please," I said.

"Jennie. Can you give me a general recount of what happened?"

"I was working late when I heard the elevator. I got up to see who it was. When I opened my office door, Mark was standing there."

"So your office door was shut?"

"Yes," I said. "Is that important?"

"It must be a loud elevator."

"Coop," Lisa said, her brows lowering.

"Just trying to get the facts as straight as possible. That's why it would've been better to do this last night, while her memory was fresh."

I cleared my throat. "Yes, from my desk, I probably wouldn't have heard it. But, now that I think about it, I was actually standing against the door."

Listening. Waiting. Hoping against all sense you'd come back . . .

I raised my gaze to Lisa's.

She seemed to read everything in mine.

"What happened in the time it took for Mark to walk from the elevator to your office?" Cooper asked, then lowered his voice to the recorder. "By my estimation, it's about twenty-five to thirty yards."

"I—I just stood there," I said. "I guess I should've called security, but it never crossed my mind I was in danger."

"Who'd you think would arrive at the office that late?" he asked. "A co-worker?"

"I thought it was Lisa," I said frankly.

Cooper's eyes shifted between us. He turned off the recorder. "You two dating?"

"Jennie's married," Lisa said.

"Fuck." Cooper leaned back in his seat and rubbed his hands over his face. "You're going to make this complicated, aren't you, Manoban?"

"It's not like that," I said. "Lisa's part of a feature I'm spearheading for the magazine, so she and I have been working together."

Cooper's frown gave away his skepticism, but he pressed Record. "Victim is referencing Pranpriya Lisa Manoban, who goes by Lisa. Go on, Jennie. Why would you think she'd come to the office at that time of night?"

"The magazine is featuring her as one of our most eligible bachelorettes of the year."

Cooper rolled his eyes hard, and Lisa flipped her off.

"Lisa's extremely busy and difficult to pin down—" Pin down, straddle, lower my face to her and stay just outside her reach as she tried to capture my lips with her . . .

I lost my breath at the fantasy—and my words.

Luckily, Lisa picked up where I'd trailed off. "She asked me to come by when I had a few spare moments to go over things," she said.

"And that's what you did?" Cooper asked.

"Yes," we answered in unison.

Cooper looked between us.

I didn't want to lie and possibly muddle the details of the case against Mark, but I couldn't exactly explain that we'd been arguing over the fact that someone I'd just met wanted me to choose her over my husband of years.

"Sounds like you knew who Mark Alvarez was," Cooper said.

"He's threatened her before," Lisa said.

Cooper raised his eyebrows as he took notes. "Did you file a report?"

"My husband didn't think it was necessary."

Lisa's chair creaked as she shifted.

"Tell me about that encounter."

"I was walking home one evening—"

"When?"

I paused to calculate. "A few weeks ago. He stopped me outside my apartment building, looking for my husband. Taehyung was the prosecutor against Mark's brother, Lou."

Cooper nodded. "Got it. Taehyung Kim? I'm not familiar."

"Wilson."

"Oh. Right." Cooper looked up. "I know Taehyung."

That was why the organized crime unit on Cooper's card had stuck out to me the night before. Taehyung's case had relied heavily on gang violence specialists. It was likely that he'd worked closely with CPD during the trial.

Whatever I said here today, and Lisa, too, could potentially get back to Taehyung. "Can I, um, get some water?" I asked.

Cooper tossed his notepad down but left the recorder going as he rounded the desk and went to the door. "Sally," he yelled across the office. "Water."

As Cooper returned to his desk, Lisa said, "He assaulted her that first night."

"Mark?" Cooper asked, rubbing an eyebrow.

I nodded. "He tried—"

"He put his hands on her and left marks," Lisa said, her chair creaking as she sat forward and then back, unable to get comfortable.

"Mark said he wanted Taehyung to get his brother out of prison," I explained.

"Lou's serving a life sentence. Why—and how—would Mark think Taehyung could do that?"

"Mark said he and Lou committed the same crime but that Taehyung must've 'fucked up' and got Lou a worse sentence."

Cooper's pen flew across his notepad. "Sounds like Taehyung did exactly what he was supposed to."

"He takes his work seriously," I said. "He worked really hard on that case."

"Yeah. Good guy far as I know." Cooper glanced at Lisa, whose uncharacteristic silence did nothing to dampen her presence. "What else?"

"After that, I didn't hear from Mark again," I said. "Until now."

"We'll come back to that night. What happened next at the office?" Cooper asked, eyes on his notes. "When did he put his hands on you? Be specific."

I steeled myself to recount everything, but the words wouldn't come. Why not? I'd been spared. Lisa had prevented anything bad that might've happened.

When she visibly tensed beside me, I wondered if I should make her leave the room. She seemed to be struggling with her own internal monologue. "Are you sure you want to stay for this?"

"I'm not going anywhere," she said. "Take your time."

I just had to relay the facts. That was all. With another breath, I said, "Mark wasn't there to warn Taehyung. This time, he wanted to send a message. He ripped open my blouse. When I screamed, he hit me across the face."

With a knock at Cooper's door, Lisa shot up from her chair. Mumbling to herself, she strode to the back of the room and whipped open the door. A short, elderly woman with a pitcher and three plastic cups stared back at him.

"Thank you, Sally," Coop called.

Lisa took everything from her, shoved Cooper's files aside, and nearly slammed the pitcher on the desk. After pouring a glass, Lisa handed it to me.

Cooper watched all this with narrowed eyes, then turned to me. "Do you think Mark's intent was to scare you or to sexually assault you?"

"What the fuck does it matter?" Lisa barked, back to pacing. "What kind of question is that?"

"Details," Cooper said simply. "They matter. Intent matters."

"I should've shot the motherfucker. Fuck him," Lisa said as she grabbed the back of her chair and slammed it down. With a thunderous crack, two of the legs broke off, and the rest toppled onto the ground.

Cooper jumped up, his office chair rolling back into the wall of books. "What the hell—?"

"Sorry." Lisa tossed the broken legs into the trash and sat against a windowsill, massaging the bridge of her nose. "I'm sorry," she repeated. "I'll pay for the chair. Continue."

Cooper sat back down while grumbling a string of curses. "Another outburst, and I'll kick you out, Manoban," Cooper said. "This is about her, not you."

My heart pounded as Lisa's words reverberated through the room. It'd definitely been a mistake to do this with her here. "You should leave."

"No. Not unless you need me to." Lisa pinched the inside corners of her eyes. "Go on."

I turned my attention back to Cooper. "Lisa stopped the attack before it could go any further."

Cooper blinked a few times at his friend. "Jennie said you were there for a meeting, but that you'd left. Why were you still in the building?"

I took an extra-long sip of water to hide my face.

"I'd left," Lisa said. "But as I said last night, when I saw Mark in the lobby, I thought I recognized him and turned back."

Cooper eased back in his rolling chair. "I see."

Lisa's simmering anger was almost as hard to watch as reliving the attack. "It's okay," I reassured her. "Everything turned out fine."

"Fine? It's not fine to me." Her jaw sharpened. Veins corded her forearms as she fisted her hands. "You could have been seriously hurt or—or worse. And if anything had happened to you, I . . ."

The room stilled. Confusion marred Cooper's face at Lisa's extreme reaction. We barely knew each other. There was no denying our attraction, but I wasn't her to protect. I wasn't her responsibility. And this wasn't her fault. So why was Lisa acting as if none of that was true?

As if I belonged to her?