Duke was awakened to the sound of shouting.

"What the hell is going on here?" a male voice bellowed.

Duke blinked and sat up. "Nathan?" he said blearily. "What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here?" Nathan was still yelling.

"Maybe you could lower your voice, Audrey is sleeping," Duke suggested mildly.

"Not anymore," a voice said beside him.

"Good job, you woke her up," Duke accused.

Audrey sat up too. "Nathan? What's going on? Is everything all right?"

In his indoor voice, Nathan said, "You and I had an eight o'clock appointment. You didn't show. You didn't answer your cell phone or the phone in your motel room. When I drove by there I didn't see your car in the lot. I put out an APB and a uniform found it by the docks. I didn't know where you were. The first place you call when someone is missing is hospital. And here you are. With Duke in your bed. What did you do to her, Duke?"

Duke put up his hands in surrender. "I saved Audrey's life. I didn't do anything to her that she didn't want me to do."

"I'm sorry I scared you, Nathan," Audrey cut in. "I want to get this guy, but unfortunately I think I'd better take it easy today. I don't even know when they'll let me out."

"Feel better, Parker. See you tomorrow," Nathan said and head out the door.

Duke nearly leaped out of bed and jammed his feet into his shoes. "Nathan, hang on a second, can I talk to you?"

Nathan turned back around with a less pleasant expression on his face. "About what?"

"Outside," Duke said.

"If you're up, could you get me—" Audrey started.

"—Coffee and a cupcake?" Duke finished.

"Bingo."

"I'll see what I can rustle up, give me a few," Duke said and ushered Nathan out of the room and into the hallway, pulling the door closed behind him so Audrey couldn't overhear their conversion.

Before he could say anything, Nathan turned on him. "You stay away from her," he growled.

"Audrey is a grown woman and an FBI agent so I'm pretty sure she's capable of handling herself and making her own decisions. You can't call dibs on her just because you saw her first."

Nathan's cheeks reddened. Duke ignored it and kept talking. "I also don't appreciate what you said about me. You and I haven't seen each other in what, ten years? You don't know me anymore. So if you're talking shit based on something I did twenty-five years ago, you really need to move past it. You and I were both dealing with situations at home when we were in third grade, I know you know that. I also know you know that I was more of a juvenile delinquent than a bully."

Nathan's eyes flared. "You remember."

"I remember."

"That really messed with my head."

"I know. Look, Nathan, I'm sorry, okay? It was mean and wrong of me to do it. Come by the Gull some night and I'll buy you a beer."

"Police officers aren't allowed to accept gratuities," Nathan responded automatically.

"It's not a gratuity, it's two old friends catching up."

"I'll have to explain to the chief why I'm accepting drinks from a known criminal."

Duke grimaced but kept his cool. "Last I checked, it was 'innocent until proven guilty,' Detective Wuornos. I've never been found guilty of anything. Haven't even been tried for anything."

"Right, you're innocent as a newborn baby."

"Let's not get sidetracked here. I'm apologizing to you, Nathan."

Nathan grunted. "Thanks, I guess."

Duke slapped Nathan on the back. "Great talk. See you around." He didn'twait to see if Nathan would respond, he just headed for the cafeteria where he absolutely was not going to buy any cupcakes.