"Marty? Is he here?"

"Nah." The bartender swept a hand across his brow, so obviously relieved that Saul's senses prickled. "Not until six. He's our piano player."

A kindred soul. Of course Silvia would have gravitated toward the piano. And in a strange place, out of her element-or so Reegan claimed-she would have latched on to any comfortable thing she could. Saul nodded, giving a sad sigh for effect, and threw a ten dollar bill on the bar. "Thanks. I'm not sure I can make it back then. I have to work tonight."

"Oh. That's too bad."

He didn't look disappointed. Hopefully Saul had just bought them some time. If the bartender didn't think Saul would be back, he might neglect to tell Marty someone had been around looking for Silvia. Saul could have a chance to catch him off-guard and unprepared. What he really wanted to know now was why her presence was such a huge secret. They'd have to wait and see. He waved as he walked off, and every step he put between himself and the glass of beer eased the painful knot in his chest.

He returned to the table and dropped more cash next to his plate. Reegan stuffed his last french fry into his mouth. "Any luck?"

"Think so. Come on," he said when Reegan's eyes lit. "We'll talk about it outside."

They skirted the edge of the room together and slipped out without the bartender noticing. One more thing in their favor. Better for the guy to think Saul had been alone.

The midday sun blinded him, and he fumbled in his pocket for his sunglasses. "She was here. Last night. The bartender as much as admitted it, but punted the problem to Marty, the piano player. Apparently, that's who she spent her time with."

Reegan fell into step beside him. "That makes sense. Did you talk to Marty?"

"He doesn't get in until later."

Reegan made a wordless sound of frustration. "What do we do until then?"

Saul stopped and dug his hands in his pockets while he pretended to think about it. It made no difference at all where they waited. Here. Back at the office. But if they drove back, Saul knew he wouldn't be able to stop asking for more of what they shared last night, and he'd already crossed the line too many times to count. If they stayed local, he'd at least have the pleasure of Reegan's company without the risk of ripping his clothes off.

Despite his quirks, or maybe because of them, Saul felt settled with Reegan. A strange thing to admire about a new lover, emotional contentment over physical gratification, but Saul had always connected pleasure with familiarity, not novelty.

And Reegan did display his share of unpredictability, as though the most mundane things held the wonders of the universe.

"We have about four hours. We could do a sweep of the neighborhood here. There's a chance she stayed close. It's familiar. She's made a friend of sorts. The odds are good."

He raised his head to find Reegan smiling at him. "I'm game." He pushed his hair off his forehead, slicking it back before settling the hat back into place.

Damn Saul's heart for picking up a bit at the words. This was work, not a fucking date. "You know your way around." Reegan had already implied as much.

"Somewhat," was Reegan's cryptic answer. "It's been a while."

"Okay." Saul set off at a casual pace. "Keep your eyes open for your girl." They'd walked the length of the block before he spoke again. "You never told me what your connection is to Silvia."

"Didn't I?"

Saul didn't grace that with an answer, and eventually Reegan sighed. "I've known her for years, since we were children. No, let me rephrase that. We knew of each other as children. We grew up in the same res...in the same neighborhood. Then, when we were older, I met her again. She was a singer then, and I was in college." His voice trailed off, and his pace slowed as his gaze turned wistful. Saul couldn't take his eyes off of him. "Lost track of her after that as well, and I didn't see her again until yesterday, when she showed up to go with my group to see the president's speech."

Saul veered off the street into a small fenced park. Now they were getting somewhere, and he didn't want Reegan to get distracted, which he'd been doing since they'd set off on their little walk, and by the strangest things. Huge shade trees, oaks and maples, cut the warmth of the sun enough that Saul shivered. "Was this a group of mutual friends?"

Reegan pursed his lips before nodding, and Saul turned to hide his irritation, frowning at the box hedge. Another lie. "What about her husband? You said they'd had a fight. Do you know him?"

"Nope. Met him for the first time yesterday." Reegan's tone had turned brittle, lacking even the slightest trace of humor it usually held. Theirs hadn't been a pleasant meeting, was Saul's guess.

"Is he looking for her too?"

"No."

"No?" Saul caught Reegan's arm before he could escape to investigate a group of cherub statues. "As a matter of course, husbands tend to get involved when their wives are in mortal danger."

"As a matter of course." Reegan's eyes held his unflinchingly. "Not all the time."

A fact Saul knew intimately. Anger rose up, swamping him. A familiar rage at being helpless. He was missing too many pieces of the puzzle, and Reegan wasn't relinquishing them easily. "You're not giving me much to work with."

"I know." Reegan closed his eyes. A muscle twitched in his jaw. "Listen. I'm doing the best I can."

"Are you? And when we find her, if we find her, will she be in even more danger?"

He saw the lie fly to Reegan's lips, but he held it there, shaking visibly. "I promise you, Saul. I'm doing everything I can to keep her safe. It's true I don't really know this woman. But we have a shared history, of sorts, and history is kind of my thing. We've been through a lot of the same shit. She doesn't deserve this mess she's in, and I'm going to work my ass off to get her out of it, okay?"

Okay. Saul blinked, a bit dizzy with relief. It would have been the end for them, an unforgivable discretion, if Reegan was knowingly putting Silvia in danger, especially from her husband. That was one thing Saul could never forgive. He wanted more information, but that was greed for the truth and nothing more. Clients always lied to him. That was about the only trait his cases shared. So why was he expecting more from Reegan? They'd fucked, not gotten married. The man owed him absolutely nothing. What grated was that he had to continually remind himself of that. "Okay," he conceded.

Reegan took an unsteady breath. "Thank you."

A horn blasted out on the street. Raised voices drew Saul's attention away from Reegan. Closing in on midday, he expected the noise of traffic, but not screams of alarm. Stepping out from under the tall trees, he jumped a short wrought-iron fence and jogged across the manicured grass toward the street, coming into the sun at the edge of the sidewalk.

Reegan called out from behind him. "What's going on?"

"Not sure. Stay here." Saul stepped out onto the sidewalk, glancing left and right, drawn to some sort of commotion up the hill. More voices rang out, but before he could work out what was being yelled, Reegan appeared at his side. Damn it, the man was worse than Cammie. "I said to stay where you were," Saul barked.

"And I ignored you."

The roar of an engine and a blaring horn effectively covered Saul's nasty reply. Across the street, a man waved his arms at the crowd gathering at the curb. "Watch out!"

Saul reached for Reegan's arm and grabbed at empty air. He spun, horrified to find Reegan stepping off the sidewalk between a red Prius and a hulking Lincoln Navigator. His gaze was fixed on something across the street, eyes wide with shock.

"Reegan!" Saul yelled. "Get back!"

Too late. From the corner of Saul's eye, a dark, hulking shadow appeared, racing closer at high speed, and he turned in time to see a moving truck barreling backward down the hill toward them, the rear door still wide open. Inside, furniture and moving boxes were rattling back and forth. A group of people ran behind, screaming out warnings. One of the men, dressed in a light blue shirt with the moving company's logo embroidered on the front, was sprinting ahead of the pack, face a mask of panic.

The wheels shifted, and the truck veered toward the side of the street where Saul and Reegan were standing. Saul's brain ran the angles and rate of speed automatically. In a matter of seconds, the truck would strike, pinning Reegan between the two parked cars. His heart dropped into his stomach. "Reegan! Watch out!"

Finally, a reaction. Puzzled, still looking as though he were in a trance, Reegan turned to see the danger, but didn't react. Statue-still, he stood frozen in place.

Saul stopped thinking and acted, exactly as he'd been trained to do. Leaping over the hood of the car, he hooked Reegan around the waist and hauled him backward onto the sidewalk. They both landed hard on the cement.

The truck hit, folding the little Prius like an accordion and flattening it against the front of the Navigator, where, just a split second ago, Reegan had been standing. Boxes flew from the rear door, rolling all directions as though they were giant dice. In the aftermath of the impact, the screaming and yelling stopped for a moment. Saul raised his head as people rushed up and gathered around them.

"Was anyone hurt? Jesus H. Christ, is there anyone hurt?" The man from the moving company barreled into the circle of worried faces and leaned over Saul. His face, pasty white, dripped sweat. "I swear to God I set the parking brake. I set that goddamn parking brake."

In the distance a siren began to wail, the circle of faces above them grew denser, and Saul's head cleared enough to remember Reegan. He rolled off the prone body under him. "Are you okay?" He shook Reegan's shoulder.

Though conscious, Reegan didn't answer. He stared upward into the sunlight, mouth agape. "It happened again."

"What? What happened again?" Saul leaned close when Reegan's voice failed.

Reegan raised a scraped finger and waved it at Saul. "I'm going to die here."

Fantastic. How much more rattling could this guy's brain take before he got scrambled for good? "What the hell were you doing? Didn't you see the truck?"

"I saw it." Reegan closed his eyes on a small groan. "I froze. Sorry."

Saul's jaw clenched. Eventually he'd seen it. But at first he'd been too distracted. "Who were you looking at across the street? Was it Silvia?"

Reegan shook his head, wincing at the sharp movement. He struggled up onto his elbows and lifted a hand to the corner of his mouth. It came away with a spot of blood. "It wasn't her. It was someone else I thought I recognized."

There was just enough truth in Reegan's tone that Saul couldn't call him out on a lie. But, damn it, there was something important he wasn't saying. Saul struggled to his knees, his own muscles protesting now. Reegan had made a nice buffer, but he hadn't cushioned Saul's fall entirely. Blood dripped down his arm, and his elbow felt raw beneath his jacket. When his head stopped spinning, he rose to his feet, holding tight to the sea of helpful hands.

"Hey, guys. Stay put. An ambulance is on the way."

"We're good." Reegan waved the suggestion off and held a hand out. Saul took it, hauled him to his feet, and they leaned against the remnants of the Prius while the crowd swirled around them. Reegan squinted at Saul. "Do you need the ambulance?"

"I'm fine." He peered over the crowd, but there was little to see. The police had arrived and were directing traffic, urging spectators away from the scene. Wild laughter bubbled up in his throat. "First you get shot. Then you give yourself a concussion in the shower. Now you almost get run over by a truck. What the hell is up with you? Did you walk under a ladder yesterday? Kick a black cat?"

Reegan barked something that might have been a laugh. It was hard to tell when he had his face buried in his hands on the hood of the car. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"You're probably right." Saul called out to a man who was trudging back up the hill. "Was anyone else hurt?"

The guy shook his head, incredulous. "No. It's a fucking miracle. I thought your friend was going to buy it for a minute, the way he just walked into the street and stood there."

Saul had thought the same. His patience broke, the dam no match for Reegan's misdirection and half-truths. They were having a heart-to-heart. Right now. The Rover stood across the street, and Saul steered Reegan out of the growing crowd in the direction of the car. They both swayed as they went, looking like woozy drunks probably, but that was a stereotype Saul had some experience with, so the disproving looks and whispers were easy to ignore.

The scrape on his arm seeped blood. He had brush burn on his cheek and shoulder. Still, he'd fared better than Reegan, who'd started their adventure a few bumps and bruises ahead of him.

In addition to the bullet graze on his cheek and the bump on his head from his slip in the shower that morning, he'd added a cut lip, another oozing scrape above his left ear, and he was limping, favoring his left ankle again. Even more worrisome, he'd begun to laugh before they'd taken a dozen steps, leaning into Saul as he cackled.

"Something funny?"

"My life. It's funny."

Saul let the inane statement go for now. "Are you going to tell me who you were staring at across the street?" There hadn't been a woman on the opposite curb. Only men. One in particular, in a dark suit, shoulder-length hair in a tight braid. He hadn't been watching the truck either. His eyes had been on Reegan, but that didn't mean much. Lots of people had been watching Reegan, considering he'd been a second away from being crushed to death.

They stumbled to a stop for a passing car, where Reegan made a point of examining his hat for damage. "I'm not really sure. I think I recognized him."

"He's a friend?"

Reegan shook his head. "No. I recognized him as someone who knew Silvia." The hat must have passed muster because he set it back on his bruised head. "I didn't expect to see him here. But everything happened so quickly. I might be mistaken."

Judging by the look on Reegan's face, he didn't think he'd been mistaken. His jaw clenched and the tic had returned to pulse in the corner of his jaw. "We need to go get cleaned up. They won't let us back into that place otherwise."

The Rover stood unharmed, though it could have easily been hit. The truck could have veered either way. It hadn't, though. It had come after Reegan.

Saul keyed the locks open as they approached, then loaded Reegan into the passenger seat. Caught up in his self-righteous tantrum, he startled when Reegan caught the door before he slammed it. "So much for our romantic afternoon on the town."

"Yeah," Saul said, voice gruff. "So much for that."

Traffic was light, and the trip passed in silence. Eyes closed, forehead tipped against the window, Reegan said nothing more until they pulled into the alley parking spot near Saul's office. "I'm reclaiming that cot, just so you know."

"Fine." Lying down for an hour, after a snack of Advil, sounded perfect.

"Feel like joining me?" He rolled his head toward Saul, his grin a disconcerting mix of lascivious and exhausted.

"I don't know whether to be impressed or scared that you're thinking about sex right now."

Reegan extracted himself from the car in fits and starts. "Don't be scared. I'm scared enough for the both of us."

Chapter Ten.

Reegan marked the runaway truck incident as near-death experience number three and put it behind him. Not completely. The fear still beat hot in his blood, along with an awareness that a fatal countdown had begun. But he was a scholar by nature, could compartmentalize when he needed to, and knew panicking wasn't going to solve his problem. Studying it, discovering a workable solution. That was the answer.

Saul wasn't going to let up on the issue of the man on the other side of the street, and strangely, Reegan hoped he didn't. Seeing Pigtail standing there had frozen Reegan's blood, made him immobile with shock. He'd went round and round with himself on the drive back to Saul's office. Tried to talk himself out of the truth, but avoidance was a shitty coping mechanism. It had been Pigtail. Same monkey suit. Same monkey face.

How had he found Reegan? Was he alone, or were Emilio and Bluto with him? Even if one or more of D'arco's men had used the portal on a second jaunt, they'd be several minutes behind Reegan. It took that long to warm up the collider. Trying to examine all the possibilities made his headache worse. On a lighter note, Saul was earning every penny of that retainer. He'd become Reegan's bodyguard, in blatant ways and in others not so obvious.

The answer hit as Saul unlocked the office door, surprising him into speaking out loud. "He knew I was coming to see you. He's been on me since last night." The possibility chilled him. D'arco knew all about Reegan's plan to hire Saul. Whether Maxie had given that information freely...Reegan didn't want to dwell on that.

Saul paused, key halfway in the lock, but opened the door without commenting. He stalked in ahead of Reegan, anger obvious in his brisk stride and choppy movements.

Reegan followed cautiously. The two of them needed to talk. Soon. If he didn't come clean about what was happening, he'd lose Saul's trust. Trust he needed if he wanted to find Silvia. "Thank you." He hovered just inside the door, rolling the brim of his hat in his hands. "Again. You're making a habit of saving my life. It's not what I hired you for."

"I'm getting the feeling-" Saul leaned back against Cammie's desk, hands braced on the edge, "-that all your so-called accidents and your missing girl are related."

Reegan held up a finger. "I can assure you no one pushed me in the shower."

"Maybe not." Saul's dark, flinty gaze said he thought some connection existed, though. "Still, it's an awful lot of coincidences. I'm not a big believer in coincidences."

The cot looked too tempting, and Reegan sank onto it, hurting everywhere. Keeping upright seemed a silly battle to fight, so he tipped over onto the fluffy pillow. Saul didn't look any less pissed when viewed sideways, unfortunately. "May I have a doughnut?" he asked. Sugar cured so many ills. Maybe it had the power to postpone this conversation.

Saul slid the box forward and looked under the lid. "What are you doing here, Reegan? Why are you involved in this thing? The truth. I'm done with the lies."

So much for putting things off. "All right. I'll tell you." He met Saul's raised eyebrow. "For a doughnut."

Lips twitching, Saul picked out a raised sugar doughnut and walked over to place it in Reegan's hand. "You're a cheap date."

"I thought I'd already demonstrated that."

He bit into the doughnut, knowing it was time to confess. His choices had whittled themselves from bad, to worse, to downright deadly. Pigtail was here. He might not be the only one. The stakes were higher, the danger more pronounced. Reegan wouldn't be able to live with himself, should he actually live, if his secrecy somehow cost Saul his life. Maybe sharing the truth would help ease the pressure Reegan was putting on the timeline. Unlikely, but since his situation couldn't get much worse, he was willing to give it a try.