Chapter 7 Faith #2
“But not all cases are created equal. He looked ready to burn you alive just for breathing my air.”
“That guy probably looks homicidal when ordering coffee.”
“This could destroy you. Your career.”
Something flickered across his face. Real worry, quickly buried. “Sometimes, cops get particularly heated about certain cases. Doesn’t change anything.”
“It changes everything.” My voice pitched higher, panic clawing up my throat. “You’re putting your entire future on the line.”
“Faith.” He said my name like it cost him something. “I’d put everything on the line for you.”
The words hung between us, heavy with meaning. All this time, I’d been lying to myself about what this was between us. But this? Him risking everything, his reputation, his career, his future?
This was real. Raw. Terrifying in its honesty.
My throat tightened. “You barely know me.”
“I know you’re not what that detective thinks you are.”
He sounded so sure. And that terrified me more than the handcuffs waiting outside the door.
“How?” The word scraped out. “How can you possibly know that?”
Something flickered across his face. Pain maybe. Or memory. “Because I’ve seen the real thing, Faith. I’ve looked into the eyes of people who felt nothing. No remorse. No hesitation.” His tongue pushed against the inside of his cheek. “That’s not you.”
I could tell that whatever defendants he’d had in the past had left scars I was only beginning to see.
“What if you’re wrong about me?”
“I’m not.”
“But what if you are?” I pressed, needing him to understand. “What if I’m exactly what he thinks? What if you’re risking everything for someone who doesn’t deserve it?”
His eyes held mine, steady and unflinching. “Then I’ll deal with that. But I’m not walking away on a what-if.”
“That detective knows something. This isn’t just another case,” I pressed on. “Anyone who helps me might be signing their own death warrant. Professionally speaking.”
“Then we’d better make sure we win.”
Rodriguez’s words clawed through my skull, sharper than the headache pulsing behind my eyes. “When this hits the news … it’s going to be a hell of a show.” He’d practically salivated, saying it. Like he was holding a winning lottery ticket and couldn’t wait to cash it in.
“Let’s just say, this case is about to get very interesting.”
The detective’s smug certainty made my stomach turn to ice. He knew who the dead man was. Knew it would change everything. And he’d looked at me like I was already convicted. Like my guilt was a foregone conclusion he was simply waiting to announce.
Who the hell had I killed?
The question ricocheted through my skull, unanswerable and terrifying. Someone important. Someone whose death would make headlines, make careers, destroy them. Someone whose identity would turn this from a self-defense case into a media circus.
And Ryker was about to step directly into the spotlight with me.
“No.” I pulled my hand away, even though it felt like ripping off my own skin. “You need to walk away from this. From me.”
Ryker’s eyes darkened. “Not happening.”
“I’m serious.” I scooted back on the bed, needing distance before his gravitational pull made me selfish. “You heard the detective. This case will bring you nothing but trouble.”
“I don’t care.”
“Well, I do!” The words erupted from somewhere deep, from some part of me that had started to care about this infuriating, protective, impossibly good man. “I care about you too much to let you destroy yourself for me.”
Leaning over the bed, he braced his hands on either side of me, caging me in. I was surrounded by his heat, the solid wall of his chest inches from mine. I could see the flecks of silver in his sapphire eyes, could count his eyelashes if I wanted to torture myself.
“You think I could walk away from you?” His voice dropped to a tone that made everything inside of me come alive. “You think I could leave you to face this alone? Let some public defender who doesn’t give a damn about you handle this?”
“It’s the smart play—”
“Fuck the smart play.” The profanity cracked like a whip.
He exhaled, and for a moment, the armor slipped.
“I’ve watched you, Faith. The way you check exits in every room.
The way you looked at that blood on your hands like it belonged to a stranger.
” His voice roughened. “Cold-blooded killers don’t tremble.
They don’t look haunted. They look through you like you’re furniture. ”
He leaned even closer, and I forgot how to breathe.
“And somewhere along the way, I started caring about what happens to you. More than I should. More than makes sense.” A muscle ticced in his jaw. “So, maybe my judgment’s compromised. Maybe I’m making the biggest mistake of my career. But I’m not walking away to find out.”
My heart hammered against my ribs. This wasn’t certainty. It wasn’t a promise that I was worth saving. It was something messier and more terrifying: a man choosing to bet on me while fully aware he might lose everything.
And that honesty, that willingness to admit he didn’t have all the answers, made me trust him more than any grand declaration ever could.
Tears burned behind my eyes. I didn’t deserve him. That truth sat in my stomach like a stone. But I was too weak, too scared to do the right thing and let him walk away. Hell, the thought of facing this without him made me want to crawl into a hole and disappear.
“Okay,” I managed.
Ryker was quiet for a moment, his muscles relaxing with this one battle behind him. “Now that we have a confirmed homicide, this becomes a full-scale investigation. CSI is processing the scene, the coroner is doing his thing, and detectives are building their case.”
“So, they’ll arrest me.”
“Once you’re cleared medically, yes. They’ll take you to the station for booking.”
“How did he die?”
Ryker studied me. “What do you mean?”
“Does it look like self-defense?”
“That’s what the investigation will determine.”
“How many times was he … cut? Stabbed?”
“Why?”
“Because I’m trying to understand what happened. Did I get in one shot in self-defense or …”
“I don’t know yet, but there are many cases where the victim fights back excessively, and it’s still self-defense.
I’ll have more answers once I get the autopsy report.
I want to know exactly what killed him, whether there were defensive wounds on his body, whether there’s any evidence he attacked you first.” His eyes flicked to my bandaged head.
“That head wound of yours is already documented. If he caused it, that’s our foundation for self-defense.
” He shifted, his gaze going distant for a moment, his lawyer brain at work.
“I’m also having the knife tested. Not just for blood, but for prints.
If his fingerprints are anywhere on that blade or handle, it means he struggled with you for control or had control to begin with.
” His eyes sharpened on mine. “That might help us with planting doubt about premeditation.”
He exhaled, shifting gears. “Now, within forty-eight hours of arrest, you’ll appear before a judge for a bond hearing. Prosecutors will argue whether to hold you or set bail.”
“Hold me? As in jail? Indefinitely?”
“I’ll argue you’re not a flight risk. That you have ties to the community.”
How is this real?
“Do you think they’ll grant bail?”
“Depends on a lot of factors. But one of them …” He glanced at the door Rodriguez had exited through. “Faith, are you certain that you don’t know the identity of the man in the woods?”
Before I could answer, before I could even process the question fully, the door burst open again. Two uniforms appeared, their faces carved from stone.
“Faith Morrison?” The taller one held up cuffs that caught the fluorescent light. “You’re under arrest for first-degree homicide.”
Ryker was between them and me before they’d finished the sentence, his entire body a wall of protective fury. “She’s not going anywhere until she’s medically cleared.”
“Doctor signed off five minutes ago,” the shorter officer said, holding up paperwork. “Time to go.”
“She needs to change first.”
The officers exchanged an irritated look as Ryker opened the door and waited for them to leave.
“I’ll step out,” Ryker said.
“It’s fine.” I stood up carefully, noting the way Ryker seemed on guard, should I sway.
I don’t know why I turned my back to him. Shame maybe. He’d already seen me naked, but now, I felt too damn vulnerable to face him. Over my shoulder, I noticed that Ryker must have sensed my discomfort because he turned to give me privacy.
When the hospital gown fell away, I caught my reflection in the dark screen of a monitor and looked away fast. The paper scrubs crinkled as I pulled them on, stiff and cold against my skin, and the disposable underwear felt like wearing a diaper.
The foam slippers were too big, slapping against my heels when I took a step.
“I’m done.”
When Ryker turned, his eyes swept over me once, something fierce and protective flashing through them before he schooled his expression.
Without a word, he grabbed his jacket from the chair and draped it over my shoulders.
“You don’t have to—”
“It’s cold outside; you’re wearing it.”
The jacket swallowed me whole. And for one ridiculous moment, wrapped in his warmth while dressed in clothes meant for people with nothing left, I felt less alone.
“Ready?” His face was only a couple of feet from mine.
I nodded my lie, and after a hesitation, Ryker opened the door and let the officers back inside.
The cuffs clicked open, the sound echoing in my chest like a death knell as they clicked shut around my wrists. This was really happening. I was being arrested for murder. And the man willing to risk everything for me could only watch.
The hospital room blurred into a tunnel of faces, but I had eyes for only one man: Ryker.
I wished I could go back in time, to when he’d first put his arms around me.
Did he think about that moment in the elevator as much as I did? That first touch in Axel’s building when everything between us shifted, when we crossed the threshold from friends to something inevitable? When he’d held me close and I’d felt safe for the first time in years?
I bet he never imagined it would lead to this. Me in handcuffs. Him staking his entire career on a woman who might be exactly what that detective implied: guilty as hell.
What had he been thinking that day? Had he known even then that I would destroy everything he touched?