"There is nothing in the world I wouldn't do to make her feel safe, Ally," James said. "I'm caught between a rock and a hard place. I can't hurt her. I won't hurt her."

"She's already hurt, James," Ally said. "You can't fix the physical stuff. Her body is doing that on its own. You can fix the emotional stuff and I recommend you do it quickly. She's ... unraveling."

James sighed, moving around his desk and pausing next to Ally long enough to give her a brief hug. "Thank you for telling me."

"Of course I told you."

"You could have done the girl-pact thing and kept it to yourself until it was too late to fix," James said. "You didn't do that."

He moved toward the stairs.

"Um, I told her that I was talking to you about answering the office phones this week," Ally said.

James paused. "And?"

"Well, now I'm invoking the sibling-pact thing," Ally said. "Don't you dare rat me out."

"She's going to know when I go up there to talk to her," James pointed out.

"Not if you're smart about it."

James chuckled, the sound foreign to his own ears. How long had it been since he laughed?

"Your secret is safe with me."

"Good," Ally said. "Now, go and fix her. Oh, and if she wants to have s.e.x, just a tip, have s.e.x. Rejecting her is just ... mean."

James shook his head as he tried to dislodge Ally's words from his brain. "I'll see you Monday. Make sure the front door is locked on your way out."

James jogged up the stairs, pausing in front of the apartment door to collect himself before pushing inside. He had no idea how he was going to handle this. He just knew he needed to do it and he needed to do it now.

The living room was empty, so James headed toward the bedroom. She wasn't there but something about the stillness of the room bothered him. The only room he hadn't checked was the bathroom. He knocked on the door and waited a moment. When there was no sound from the other side, he opened the door and found the room empty.

Where was she?

James sucked in a breath as he took a closer look at the apartment. Her things were ... gone. The shark slippers that had been by the edge of the couch, the hoodie that had been draped over the armchair, and the black Converse that had been situated on the rug by the front door were all missing.

James' heart flopped painfully.

He strode back to the bedroom, really looking at it this time. The nightstand on his side of the bed was clear. Her antibiotics, the numbing agent, and the white gauze they all were gone. When he glanced at the nightstand on her side of the bed, he found that her cellphone was also absent.

She'd left. She'd left the apartment. She'd left their home. She'd left him. But how? She didn't have a car. She could've called a cab, but that didn't seem like something she would do. Who would she have called?

The answer hit him square in the chest. Heidi. She was the only person who would have dropped everything to help a despondent Mandy when she didn't feel like she could trust anyone else.

James fought to keep his breathing even, to not let the panic take him over. He'd screwed up again. He'd missed the signs. He was going to put one of those little chalkboards around her neck and make her write everything down on it from now on so he knew what was going on in that busy little mind of hers.

Think! Where would she go?

James was pocketing his keys and moving toward the door mere seconds after the answer hit him. She'd gone to her apartment. There was nowhere else she could go.

Ten.

"Are you on the lam or something?"

Heidi had picked Mandy up outside of Hardy Brothers Security, not once considering ignoring the request. She'd known the blonde clerk for four years but the haunted tone of her voice was something new.

When Heidi had pulled up outside of the building, she'd found Mandy waiting with two duffel bags in her hands and a morose expression on her face. Heidi had no idea what was wrong but it had to be big.

"Why would you think I'm on the lam?" Mandy asked.

"Because you told me to be quiet and not honk my horn," Heidi said. "I figured this was part of some covert mission. Isn't that what the Hardy brothers do?"

"I have no idea what the Hardy brothers do," Mandy said, not bothering to hide the bitterness in her voice. "They're not my concern anymore."

"Not your concern? You and James are in love."

"James and I aren't together." Mandy's body was stiff, her voice stiffer. "He wanted out."

That didn't sound right to Heidi. She'd seen James and Mandy together. In fact, she'd been jealous of their relationship more times than she could count. She was embarra.s.sed by the internal admission, but it was the truth. James and Mandy had the kind of relationship that people dreamed about. Heidi knew she'd been dreaming about one just like it since she was a teenager. Something else had to be going on here.

"Does James know you two aren't together anymore?"

"I told you, he's the one who wanted out," Mandy said.

"Then why did you sneak away?"

"Because I didn't want some big confrontation. I'm tired. I'm sore. I just want ... I just want a little peace. Is that too much to ask?"

"No, but ... ."

"But nothing," Mandy said, her voice climbing an octave. "James Hardy doesn't love me. He's trying to be nice and not hurt me, but that's not the type of relationship I want."

"You're still recovering, though," Heidi said. "I don't think you should be running around town with a chip on your shoulder when you need to be taken care of."

"I don't have a chip on my shoulder," Mandy countered. "And I'm not staying with a man simply because he's too scared to tell me the truth."

Heidi pursed her lips, keeping her eyes trained on the freeway as she merged onto the exit ramp that led to Mandy's apartment. "I don't want to argue with you," she said. "You look like you've been through enough for about three lifetimes. That being said, I can't help but wonder if you haven't lost your mind."

"I'm perfectly sane."

"Yeah, well, the James Hardy I've come to know is crazy about you," Heidi said.

"He was crazy about me," Mandy replied. "Things change. He fell out of love with me. It happens. I'm not surprised, really. I always expected it."

"You did not."

"I did, too," Mandy said. "I never told you this, but James actually bolted the first night we had s.e.x. He snuck out of my apartment and left me there to wake up alone. This was always his plan."

Heidi was stunned. "That's heinous."

"It is."

"He came back, though."

"He did," Mandy said. "I now realize it was just the guilt driving him. I refuse to be a guilt girlfriend."

"I don't think that's what you were or are."

"You don't know," Mandy said.

Heidi made a popping sound with her lips. "You're really cranky."

"I'm just accepting my lot in life."

"What's your lot in life?"

"I'm going to be alone," Mandy said. "I understand that now. I've loved James Hardy since I was fourteen years old. He didn't feel the same way then. I somehow managed to convince myself that he felt that way now."

"I think he does."

"He doesn't," Mandy said. "He doesn't want to be with me. I'm just a burden to him."

"Is this about the explosion?'

"Who cares about the explosion? The pain I have from that stupid thing is nothing compared to the big James-Hardy-shaped hole in my heart. I'm done."

"Maybe I should call him."

"If you call him, I'm never going to speak to you again."

Heidi worried her lower lip with her teeth. "What are you going to do when I get you home?"

"I'm going to take a bath and then I'm going to go to sleep," Mandy said. "In another week, my body will be healed and I'll be able to put all of this behind me."

"You're going to put James Hardy behind you?"

"I'm going to try."

JAMES pulled into an open parking spot in front of Mandy's apartment building and slammed his Explorer into park. He jumped out of the vehicle, pausing when he saw Heidi sitting in her car alone. She was talking to herself.

James knocked on the window, causing the pleasingly plump court stenographer to jump. Heidi rolled down her window when she saw him. "I'm so glad you're here."

"Is she inside?"

"Yeah."

James searched Heidi's face for a clue. When he didn't find one, he squatted down so he could better talk to her on an even level. "What did she say?"

"She said a whole heck of a lot," Heidi said.

"Like?"

"Well, for starters, she says you don't love her and she's a burden to you."

James growled. "She's killing me."

"I told her I thought she was losing her mind, but then she got mad at me so I stopped saying that."

"What else did she say?"

"She said that you want a life that doesn't include her, and that she's sick of being a guilt girlfriend."

James was curious. "What's a guilt girlfriend?"

Heidi pinched the bridge of her nose. "Did you really sneak out of her apartment and leave her to wake up alone after the first time you had s.e.x?"

James' heart pinged. "Yes."

"That was a jacka.s.s move."

"I'm well aware."

"She said ... she said ... ."

"What did she say, Heidi?"

"She said that she's been in love with you since she was fourteen, but she couldn't pretend you ever loved her anymore," she said. "I told her that was crazy. I've seen you two together. You're either the best actor ever, or you love her with your whole heart."

"I love her more than anything in this world, Heidi," James said. "You're not wrong."

"Then why is she acting like this?"

"She's on medication," James said. "She's in constant pain. I've been ... distant. I was being distant because I thought I was protecting her. I may have been wrong to do it."

Heidi looked dubious. "May have?"

"I was definitely wrong," James said. "I thought I was doing the right thing."

"You're a man," Heidi said, shrugging. "You always think you're doing the right thing until you realize you're doing the wrong thing."