Her expression crumpled and re-formed in one breath.“When he knocked you down, I thought…”
“Hey,” he cut in gently.“I'm here.I'm upright.He's the one in cuffs.”
Her gaze flicked past him to where Diaz was walking the man toward the patrol car, reading him his rights again as she guided him up the slight rise to the road.
“That's him,” Sabrina said.Her voice sounded thin.“The person who tried to erase my life.”
“Looks that way,” Colby said.
Her fingers tightened again.“I wanted it to be some awful accident.A freak thing.But it wasn't.He stood out here and poured gas on the place that is supposed to be my home.”
“And you're still here,” Colby said.“He didn't get what he wanted.”
She swallowed.“What if he has friends?”
“Then we deal with them one at a time,” he said.“Tonight, Diaz has him.That's one less threat.”
She searched his face, like she could read truth in bruises.“I could have lost you.”
“But you didn't,” he said.“You got Diaz here, stayed put, and did exactly what we talked about.”
“I yelled your name,” she said.
“And you didn't run into the middle of the fight,” he said.“That last bit matters a lot.”
Her mouth tipped.“I wanted to.”
“I know,” he said.“You're not exactly the sit-on-the-sidelines type.”
She let out a breath that shook.“I spent years standing in the middle of other people’s crises.Broken toilets.Missed flights.Anniversary dinners gone sideways.I always had a fix.Tonight I had to stand in a doorway while you were out there, and I couldn’t fix anything.”
“You fixed the part no one else could,” he said.“You kept your head.Diaz needed you to stay there, and you did.That counts.”
Boot steps approached.Diaz stopped a few feet away, giving them visual room but not too much.
“You two in one piece?”she asked.
Sabrina kept one hand on his shirt and twisted to look at her.“Define one piece.”
Diaz’s gaze flicked from Sabrina’s feet to Colby’s face.“Alive, mostly intact, not planning on tackling anyone else tonight.”
“Then yes,” Sabrina said.
Diaz nodded.“Paramedics are on their way to check Lover Boy’s face whether he likes it or not.”Her tone softened a fraction.“You did good.”
“I stood in a trailer and tried not to throw up,” Sabrina said.
“You called fast,” Diaz said.“That gave me a shot at getting here before this turned into a bonfire.You probably saved your cabin tonight.”
Sabrina’s grip tightened.“Will he tell you why?”
“He'll tell somebody,” Diaz said.“Whether it's us or a judge is up to him.But between the gas, the lighter, Norman House, and tonight, I am confident he won't be seeing the outside of a cell for a good long while.”
“Is it tied to Seaside?”Sabrina asked.
Diaz’s expression shifted, the way it did when she knew more than she could say in one sentence.“We'll talk through that in detail tomorrow,” she said.“Right now, you two need to go home, get warm, and let me lock this place down.I'll have an officer sit at the end of the road until we're done.”
Sabrina hesitated.“I don't want to leave it.”
