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Gabe stepped back. “Let’s go, guys.”
    “Captain Schroeder is down the hall,” Jack said, his voice a low growl. “He will help you find your room and tell you more about the briefing tomorrow.”
    The room was silent for a moment, with no one willing to ease the growing tension. Finally Jones spoke up.
    “We’ll see you tomorrow, Princess. Sweet dreams,” he said, winking at her.
    Gig and Crunch came over to give her hand a squeeze.
    “See you later,” Crunch said.
    Gig started to say something, then backed away from the bed without a word. The four men slipped past Jack and out the door. He was standing on the outskirts of the room and started to move toward the bed but froze when he saw the look on Caroline’s face.
    “May I come in?” he asked.
    “You’re already here,” she said. “Not much I can do to stop you.”
    “May I sit down?”
    Caroline gestured toward the chair Gabe had vacated. “Whatever.”
    Jack sat down next to the bed. She wondered if he’d leave if she didn’t speak up, but she doubted it. Best to get this over with as quickly as possible. He began to remove the chain around his neck. Her wedding ring. She’d forgotten he was wearing it. Just like she wanted to forget their entire conversation in the interrogation room.
    “This belongs to you,” he said.
    “I don’t want it.”
    Jack stopped. “What?”
    Oh, of course he wouldn’t believe her. He seemed to think everything was hunky fucking dory. “You heard me. I don’t want it.”
    He hesitated for the briefest of moments before tucking the chain back into his shirt. “Why’s that?”
    Kisses and presents and promises. Lies upon lies upon lies. All stacked on top of each other and eventually they’d have to come tumbling down. Jack had to know damn well that she didn’t want him in there. That doctor would have been smart enough to set him straight. And he had to know the reason why. He wasn’t an unintelligent man.
    She could be nice. Diplomatic. Maybe even truthful. But that would take too much effort. Maybe a blunt dose of reality would yank him away from her the fastest. “It doesn’t mean anything to me,” she said. “So you go ahead and hold onto it.”
    He stared down at his hands and didn’t say anything.
    Was he really going to play dumb? “You’re looking very…alive,” she said.
    Jack rubbed the back of his neck. “That’s one way to put it.”
    Caroline fiddled with the IV, checking the bag beside her to make sure it was still full.
    “I can have Natalie check on that for you, if you want,” he said.
    “It’s fine. I have a call button. Speaking of Natalie, your perky little buddy was trying to make friends.”
    “She’s concerned about you. As am I. And she’s just a friend.”
    “I’m not worried about that.”
    “She likes you,” Jack said. “I can tell. When I first got here I gravitated toward her quickly. She reminded me of-”
    He wasn’t wasting any time, was he? Pulling at her heartstrings as soon as he walked in the door to get her to soften up. Caroline didn’t need anything else to upset her just yet. “Please don’t say who,” she whispered.
    “I’m sorry,” he said. “I won’t. But you know who I mean.”
    Bullshit interrogations. Emotional triggers. No doubt about it, Caroline hated this so-called rebellion. “Natalie’s a bit too Pollyanna for my tastes. But she seems to harbor some pretty strong feelings for you.”
    “We’re just friends,” he repeated. “I don’t want to talk about her. I want to talk about you.”
    Because God forbid he talk about himself. His own flaws, his own faults, his own mistakes. “I don’t.”
    “I – how are you?” Jack whispered.
    My head hurts. My heart hurts. Existing hurts. “Fine.”
    “Caroline-”             
    “Did Natalie tell you I don’t want you in here?”
    “She may have mentioned that.” He sighed. “I was hoping you’d give me a couple of minutes.”
    He had an ego and a