QUOTE : Did she say anything?” “No, but, dude. You—I think maybe . . . well, she . . .” He trailed off. “What, Mason? Spit it the fuck out.” He leaned closer. “Remember when we were in with Luis and his boys?” That was our first undercover; how was I supposed to forget anything about that time? “Yeah, Rach isn’t on crack.” “No, no. Not that. Do you remember the girls they’d pass around? Not the hookers,” he added before I could respond. “Yes,” I hissed, and looked at the shut door, then back to him. “Don’t tell me she—” “Kash, I’m sorry. But she’s acting just like they did. It’s already over ninety degrees and she’s shaking in sweats. She’s not sick, she looks like she’s just gotten out of a shower, and she freaked when we touched her. Think about it.” “No, no way.” I shook my head and took a few steps away from him. “Look, I know what she means to you,” he whispered, “but try to look past what you feel for her. Did you see how she was curling in on herself when you walked in? We’ve seen this enough times before to know what’s going on.” I raked my hands through my hair and tried to force the images out of my mind. “I’ll kill anyone that’s laid a finger on her.” Turning, I started storming out of his room, but he put a hand on my chest and pushed back. “Maybe I should be the one to handle this; you should go.” “The fuck I will!” I hissed, and smacked his arm away. “If what I think happened to her has happened, then she needs someone to comfort her and make her feel safe. You going in there already pissed off that someone may have raped her isn’t going to help her; you’re going to scare her more!” I swallowed back bile and took deep breaths through my nose. “When would this have even happened? Someone is always with her.” “No, we’re not, there’s days when Candice doesn’t get home for hours after we’ve already gone into work. Not including the days we have to go to the pol—bar . . . for meetings. It could have been at any time. But, Kash, we don’t know that it has happened yet. So let me handle this.” “No, you need to go. She means the world to me, not you. I need to be there for her.” “That’s exactly why it needs to be me!” he said, and I knew he was right but I didn’t care. “Mase. Go. Now.” “You’re going to