“He confirmed some of the things that we suspected. He borrowed his family’s car to impress his friends and drove to a party in Wellfleet. He claims he had never seen the girl she told him her name was Tina before he met her there that night. No last name that he can remember.”

“Do you believe him?”

“I do. Just gut instinct, but his story held up when I pressed for details. Usually if they’re lying, they’ll trip up over the small details right away. He didn’t.”

“How did he account for the drug overdose?”

Reese grimaced. “He swears that he only had one can of Budweiser. Somewhere in the course of the evening, his buddies disappeared. And someone slipped him a heavy dose of ecstasy. His tox screen confirms that he had a very small level of alcohol in his system and a great big dose of MDMA.”

“So where does that leave you?”

“Well, we’ve got a first name for the victim, and we’ve got a general location for the party. Robert vaguely remembers hearing that the parties are a regular occurrence in the area, so we’re going to do some discreet questioning in the bars and among some of our known area drug users. Chances are they’ll at least have heard of these parties.”

“You’re going after the dealers, then?” Tory’s voice was even, but her eyes were fathomless pools, swirling with dark undercurrents.

“No choice.” Reese’s tone was matter-of-fact, because the course of action was obvious. “They’re responsible for that girl’s death.”

“You’ll be careful, won’t you?”

“I always am.” Reese leaned forward and brushed her fingers through Tory’s hair, letting her palm rest against the nape of her neck. “I’ve got two very good reasons to be very careful.”

Tory leaned into the caress and wrapped her fingers around Reese’s strong forearm. She turned her face, rubbed her lips over Reese’s wrist, and murmured, “1 love you so”

“Hey, Tory, what’s the deal with this new cholesterol”

KT stumbled to a stop just inside the door. Her eyes moved from Tory who leaned forward with half-closed lids and her parted lips against Reese’s skin to the woman who gazed down at her with undisguised adoration. The image was cuttingly beautiful, and KT felt a slash of pain as exquisitely sharp as the knife blade that had brought her there. “Oh. Sorry.”

Slowly, Reese swiveled on the desk toward KT, giving Tory’s hand a squeeze as she shifted away from her. “Hi.”

“Hi.”

“How’s the first day going?”

“Actually,” KT replied, smiling grimly, “I’m getting my ass kicked. Between the little old ladies who won’t take their medication and the screaming kids who won’t sit still long enough for me to listen to their hearts, I’m beat.”

Reese laughed. “Tough crowd, huh?”

“Give me a multiple trauma any day.” KT looked apologetically at Tory. “I just had a quick question about a patient’s medication. I’m in exam room three when you get a chance.”

“I’ll be right there.”

“Thanks.” KT nodded to Reese. “Take it easy.”

“You too.”

When KT left, Reese stood and tucked her cap under her arm. “I should get back to work.” She inclined her head toward the now-empty doorway. “Everything okay there?”

Tory stood and slipped an arm around Reese’s waist, walking with her toward the hall “A few minor bumps, but basically okay.”

“Good.” Reese kissed her one final time. “Don’t stay too late, okay?”

“I won’t. I promise.” Tory stroked Reese’s cheek. “Regina and I will see you at home, Sheriff. Be safe.”

Tory rested a shoulder against the doorjamb and watched until Reese disappeared through the far door. When she finally turned away, she found KT contemplating her with an expression she had never seen on the surgeon’s face before. It was a mixture of tenderness and sadness. Silently, she walked to join her. “Ready for that consult?”

Pia paced, an extremely unusual activity for her. Ordinarily, she was calm, centered, and generally in control not in a rigid, inflexible fashion, but merely in a studied, organized way. Her life was like her work, ordered and with a definite direction, but with no particular timetable attached. Consequently, she was able to adjust to small changes with alacrity. But now, she found herself unaccountably agitated. Actually, there was nothing unaccountable about her present mood. She knew exactly to what she should attribute the uneasiness and sense of foreboding. She had done something impetuous, something that probably skirted the edges of unprofessional at the very least. Although she wasn’t a physician, she was a healthcare worker, and KT O’Bannon was her client. There wasn’t the usual sort of power dynamic at work that made relationships between physicians or therapists and patients improper, but still, the surgeon had come to her in a professional capacity, and here she was

What? What exactly am I doing?

Pia halted at her front door and looked out the window toward the street. At just before 7 p.m., there was still plenty of light, but the sun was low on the horizon, and the sky was tinged with the purples and pinks that preceded the midnight blues of impending darkness. Between the closely crowded houses on the opposite side of the street, she caught glimpses of the harbor and the white swatches of sails tilting in the wind.

She was about to go -out to dinner with a woman, a client she had just met and show her an apartment in the same complex where she lived. In the complex that her mother owned.

How many more ways can I impinge upon boundaries, I wonder?

As she contemplated informing KT that she would be happy to show her the apartment, but that she couldn’t accompany her to dinner, the woman in question turned in the driveway and started down the flagstone path toward the house. Tonight, KT wore black jeans with a wide black belt, black boots, and a white shirt with the cuffs turned back twice. She looked like a knife blade turned edge on, glittering and sharp and enticingly dangerous. Unmindful of the danger, Pia opened the door.

As KT walked the mile from her temporary quarters on Bradford to Pia’s, she thought about her day, remembering the look on Tory’s face as she’d kissed Reese. Try as she might, KT couldn’t ever remember Tory looking at her in quite that way. They’d had passion and they’d shared dreams and they’d celebrated victories, but she didn’t believe they’d ever had that depth of simple communion. So simple as to be profound. She wondered for the first time whose fault that had been. Hers, probably. She’d always had another goal to meet, another obstacle to overcome, another rung on the ladder to climb. There’d always been part of her that was somewhere else, so that she was never completely there with Tory. Never completely there for her.

Why didn’t I ever know that?

The faint scrape of wood on wood brought KT out of her reverie. Pia stepped out onto the porch, and KT slowed to take her in. She wore a blue-and-white striped boatneck tee, white Capri slacks, and sandals. Her bare arms and legs were a rich brown against the white, and her dark hair fell in loose velvet waves around her face. She was stunning in the earthy, sensual way of some women, and KT felt a welcome stirring of desire. Lust always chased the blues away.

“Hello,” KT called as Pia came down the steps. “You look great.”

“Thank you,” Pia said easily, revealing none of her recent misgivings as she fell into step beside KT. “How was your day?”

KT laughed. “Humbling.”

Pia smiled, liking the low, rich timbre of her voice. “Oh? How is that?”

“I discovered how much basic medicine I’ve forgotten in the last fourteen years. They say that you know as much medicine as you ever will on the day that you graduate from medical school, and that from that point on you know less and less. I never believed that until today.”

“You’re a surgeon. You’re not supposed to know general medicine.”

“Yes, well,” KT said quietly, “for the time being, I’m a general practitioner. Maybe that’s all I’ll ever be again.”

“Is that what you think?” Pia asked in surprise. “That we’re not going to get your hand back?”

KT met Pia’s eyes, finding the deep brown ones totally serious and startlingly intent. “Isn’t that something I need to be prepared for?”

“Possibly. But certainly not now. We haven’t even started.” In a completely spontaneous gesture, Pia reached out and squeezed KT’s right hand. “If there comes a time when I think we’re not going to get you back into the OR, I’ll tell you. Until then, I want you need you to believe that’s exactly where you’re going to be when we finish.”

“You really believe that makes a difference? The mind-over-matter thing?” KT’s voice was free of sarcasm. Pia’s conviction was too genuine to castigate. And in addition to not wanting to criticize her beliefs, the warmth of Pia’s fingers curled around KT’s was too peaceful to risk losing.

“You must have seen it yourself,” Pia replied quietly. “The ones who should have died but didn’t because their will to survive was so strong, and the ones who gave up and slipped away even when there was no medical reason for it. What I know is that you and I have to share in the belief that we’re going to bring you back. All the way back.”

Bring me back. Back from where? To where? For the first time in her nearly forty years of living, KT didn’t know where she was going, or more disconcertingly, where she wanted to go. She sighed. “I’m going to do something completely out of character.”

Pia slowed and stepped away enough to turn and face KT on the sidewalk. Their hands were still joined. “What?”

KT smiled faintly and swung Pia’s hand between them in a gentle arc as she allowed herself to relax in the warmth of Pia’s dark eyes. “I’m going to let you be in charge.”