Ben fills Kielle in

Ben sat stiffly on the leather couch and accepted a peace offering of water. I eased into the chair facing him with Lisa perched on the arm, unconsciously guarding my injured side. We waited impatiently for him to drain his glass and start his story.

"I didn't even know what had happened myself until a couple days ago," he began. "I've been in Tokyo working for the past month." Judging from his appearance, I would have guessed he'd spent more time in dojos and bars than boardrooms, but I didn't really care.

"All the Kellys tried to reach me, but I was staying at a business associate's house, and his teenage kids didn't relay the messages. Plus, I'd managed to break my cell phone the first week I was there, and rather than take the time to replace it, I'd just been borrowing Taka's — my host's. So I wasn't picking up voice mail, either.

"After about a week of getting no response from me, Q finally called my office and had them track me down. He was frantic by the time I called him back. Thought I was either dead or avoiding him on purpose, and he couldn't decide which was worse.

"So he filled me in on you and Quill getting into that brawl and you taking the hit for him." Ben paused, a concerned look on his face, clearly about to express his sympathy for my injury. But something about the set of my jaw convinced him to scratch that notion and keep going.

"Quill was mighty shaken by that encounter, as I'm sure you know. And he was even more unhappy with Nancy for being so jealous of his attention to you. So he was already feeling torn up when she decided to get her little revenge."

I flinched inwardly, remembering again the deliberate crunch of her elbow against my side, the paralyzing shock of bone piercing flesh, the losing battle I'd fought to draw breath as my lung collapsed. Normally I bounce back fast, but I wasn't over that trauma yet. Not by a long shot. Sensing my discomfort, Lisa rubbed my shoulder reassuringly.

"That was the final straw for Quill. Her deliberately hurting you was bad enough, but nearly killing you, well, that he couldn't forgive. After leaving you at the hospital, he went to Nancy's room to demand his ring back. And he walked in on her and Jimmy."

Lisa and I exchanged a look. I wasn't so sure I'd gotten the worst of Nancy's attentions that day after all.

Ben went on, his voice bitter. "The lovebirds apparently heaped all kinds of contempt on poor Quill — Q didn't elaborate on that part — and sent him away a complete wreck. His brothers thought he was about ready to have a breakdown right then and there, and Q told Bill they were taking the next couple days off. Naturally, that did not go over well."

"Aha," I interrupted, understanding beginning to dawn. "So Bill came to me the next morning — before you even got there," I added to Lisa, "and fired my ass. He also told me that I was not to contact any of the Kellys at any time for any reason, at their request. He said they were so disappointed — that's the word he used, disappointed — in me for disrupting their livelihood and destroying Quill's engagement that they wanted nothing more to do with me, ever. He said that if I cared at all about them, I would honor their wishes."

"So that's why you didn't call," Ben nodded. "Well, the plot thickens. Want to guess what Bill told Q?"

"Oh, let me," said Lisa, her voice dripping scorn. She had never hidden her dislike of my boss and was now only too happy to give vent to it. "He told Q, maybe the whole company, that Kielle wanted nothing more to do with the people who had made her life hell for the past year, especially those who had nearly gotten her killed, and that they were not to contact her for any reason."

Ben nodded again. "Bingo. So they didn't."

Shaking her head and muttering, Lisa rose to refill his water glass and our sangrias. As soon as she had sat down again, he resumed his tale.

"So there's Quill. His fiancée has dumped him to fool around with a guy who'd been like an uncle to him. His best friend is in the hospital, but she's apparently dumped him, too. And he's supposed to put on a happy face and sing joy and praise like nothing's wrong at all.

"Two days later when the Caravan is in Memphis, he gets a text message from Nancy saying, 'We should talk. Come see me.' So he stews about it for half an hour or so, then finally goes to her room. According to Q, the police asked him why he'd answer a summons from a woman who'd treated him so badly. He said he wasn't considering taking her back, but he was hoping maybe she'd explain or maybe even apologize."

"That bitch? Fat chance," snorted Lisa.

"Pretty much," Ben agreed. "When he gets there, he finds the door unlocked, so he assumes she's waiting for him and walks on in. And there she is, laid out on the bed as if in her coffin — dead as hell."

"Poor Quill," I murmured. "Poor, poor Quill."

"He checks her out, finds no pulse, calls 911, and waits for the police. Gives them his statement, puts his head in his hands, and . . . end of story.

"He didn't say anything more that day, and nobody pressed him. It was natural he'd be in shock and not want to talk about it. Next day, same thing. His brothers sat with him, but he just stared out the window. It wasn't until the third day that he opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out. He tried to speak several more times, getting more and more upset each time, and finally just collapsed into a chair like a broken doll. He's been that way ever since. Quin describes it as a boat drifting a little farther from shore with each wave that rolls in."

"That's . . . awful," said Lisa. "His beautiful, beautiful voice . . . " I could only nod, my own throat choked with unshed tears. I snuffled for a moment, then firmed up.

"I want to go back. If you think they'll have me," I added, suddenly unsure. If the Kellys believed what Bill had told them, they'd want no part of me.

"They do," Ben said firmly, laying my fears to rest. "Q started trying to find you at the same time he started calling me. By then he'd had some serious words with Bill — he didn't elaborate on that, either — and decided he was full of shit. They'd like nothing better than to see you again.

"Frankly, Kielle, they need you," he went on. "They're taking turns keeping an eye on Quill. Nobody has said it out loud, but they're afraid he might hurt himself. But they can't keep it up forever. They're at wits' end. If you came home and showed Quill you hadn't abandoned him after all, well, it wouldn't be a cure, but it might help."

My eyes narrowed at his use of the word "home." Atlanta was not my home. We had talked at one time about making it my home, at least part-time, but those days were long past. I figured it was fatigue that let him slip back to the old pattern.

Then I backtracked to something else he'd mentioned.

"You said Q had tried to find me. But I never heard from him. — Well, I've been offline for the past two weeks. If he e-mailed me — "

"He did."

" — I never saw it. Yet here you are." My inquiring look invited him to explain.

"Oh. Yeah. That. As soon as Q got a hold of me, he asked if I knew where you were. I didn't, since you hadn't gone back to Minneapolis. And I was too busy getting myself out of Tokyo to do much about it for a few days. I gave it some thought, though — a lot, actually, the whole flight — and after I'd been to see my cousins, I started checking my theories. I finally figured you'd be with Lisa, and where she lived and all that. And . . . here I am," he finished.

"Must be nice for them having a detective in the family," said Lisa.

"You could have called," I pointed out.

Abashed, Ben studied the floor. "Yes'm, I could've. But I didn't know if you'd talk to me on the phone."

"Probably not," I replied coolly. The real answer was "Hell no."

He peeked up hopefully. "I'll drive you back if you want, Kielle. I know you're not supposed to fly for a while because of the thoracostomy. So . . . I could drive you. I know you're not happy with me right now. You probably hate me. But I won't bother you. I'll just drive."

He was quite right. Driving the 1,500 miles from Taos to Atlanta with the man who broke my heart, plus a couple broken ribs, was not my idea of a good time. However, it looked like my best option at this point. He was right about the air travel; car and train were my only current options. Ben was here, and he was willing. If he could keep his mouth shut, or if I could drown him out with headphones, I could tolerate his presence for a few days for a good cause.

I looked to Lisa for confirmation. She nodded.

"All right," I said. "Let's go."

Ben huffed out the rest of his tension and was abruptly overtaken by a huge yawn.

"How long since you slept?" Lisa asked.

Ben went blank for a minute, and I saw just how tired he was. He'd been running on fumes to accomplish his mission of finding me, but his tank was empty now.

"Um . . . couple days? I was awake on the flight from Tokyo, and then I was at Maura's, and the flight here . . . "

"Then you're not going anywhere just now," Lisa pronounced. "Just stretch out there on the couch while Kielle calls Atlanta. We'll get you up in the morning."

He sat there glazed for a moment, then pulled off his shoes and socks, lay back, and passed out.

"That was quick," I observed. We moved into the kitchen so as not to disturb him.

"He came around the world for you."

"For Quill," I corrected.

"For you, too," she insisted. "He could have called and told me why, just like he did at the door, and gotten the message to you a lot sooner. But instead, he came all the way out here in person to get you back."

I shook my head. "No way. He's driving me back, not getting me back."

"But it's pretty obvious he wants you back. FYI."

"Fuck that," I said succinctly. "He had his chance."

"And he doesn't get another one?"

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me," I quoted.

"He could have bought you a train ticket instead of renting a big cushy Lincoln. He's hoping to change your mind."

"Well, he can keep on hoping. It's not going to happen," I said firmly. "Now where's my phone?"