The Surgeon: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel: With Bonus Content

don’t have to.”
    “It’s just that I see us falling apart. Not just our partnership, but our friendship. It’s funny how I never realized it was there between us. I didn’t realize how much it meant to me until I felt it slipping away.” She rose to her feet. “Anyway, I’m sorry. That’s what I came to say.” She started toward the door.
    “Catherine,” he said softly, “I know about Savannah.”
    She turned and stared at him. His gaze was absolutely steady.
    “Detective Crowe told me,” he said.
    “When?”
    “A few days ago, when I talked to him about the break-in here. He assumed I already knew.”
    “You didn’t say anything.”
    “It wasn’t my place to bring it up. I wanted you to feel ready to tell me. I knew you needed time, and I was willing to wait, as long as it took for you to trust me.”
    She released a sharp breath. “Well, then. Now you know the worst about me.”
    “No, Catherine.” He stood up to face her. “I know the
best
about you! I know how strong you are, how brave you are. All this time I had no idea what you were dealing with. You could have told me. You could have trusted me.”
    “I thought it would change everything between us.”
    “How could it?”
    “I don’t want you to feel sorry for me. I don’t ever want to be pitied.”
    “Pitied for what? For fighting back? For coming out alive against impossible odds? Why the hell would I pity you?”
    She blinked away tears. “Other men would.”
    “Then they don’t really know you. Not the way I do.” He stepped around his desk, so that it was no longer separating them. “Do you remember the day we met?”
    “When I came for the interview.”
    “What do you remember about it?”
    She gave a bewildered shake of her head. “We talked about the practice. About how I’d fit in here.”
    “So you recall it as just a business meeting.”
    “That’s what it was.”
    “Funny. I think of it quite differently. I hardly remember any of the questions I asked you, or what you asked me. What I remember is looking up from my desk and seeing you walk into my office. And I was stunned. I couldn’t think of anything to say that wouldn’t sound trite or stupid or just plain ordinary. I didn’t want to be ordinary, not for you. I thought: Here’s a woman who has it all. She’s smart; she’s beautiful. And she’s standing right in front of me.”
    “Oh god, you were so wrong. I didn’t have it all.” She blinked away tears. “I never have. I’m just barely holding it together. . . .”
    Without a word he took her in his arms. It all happened so naturally, so easily, without the awkwardness of a first embrace. He was simply holding her, and making no demands. One friend comforting another.
    “Tell me what I can do to help,” he said. “Anything.”
    She sighed. “I’m so tired, Peter. Could you just walk me to my car?”
    “That’s all?”
    “That’s what I really need right now. Someone I can trust to walk with me.”
    He stood back and smiled at her. “Then I’m definitely your man.”
    The fifth floor of the hospital parking garage was deserted, and the concrete echoed back their footsteps like the sound of trailing ghosts. Had she been alone, she would have been glancing over her shoulder the whole way. But Peter was beside her, and she felt no fear. He walked her to her Mercedes. Stood by while she slid behind the wheel. Then he shut her door and pointed to the lock.
    Nodding, she pressed the lock button and heard the comforting click as all the doors were secured.
    “I’ll call you later,” he said.
    As she drove away, she saw him in her rearview mirror, his hand raised in a wave. Then he slid from view as she turned down the ramp.
    She found herself smiling as she drove home to the Back Bay.
    Some men are worth trusting,
Moore had told her.
    Yes, but which ones? I never know.
    You won’t know until push comes to shove. He’ll be the one still standing beside you.
    Whether as a friend or a lover, Peter would be one of those men.
    Slowing down at Commonwealth Avenue, she turned into the driveway for her building and pressed the garage remote. The security gate rumbled open and she drove through. In her rearview mirror she saw the gate close behind her. Only then did she swing into her stall. Caution was second nature to her, and these were rituals she never failed to perform. She checked the elevator before stepping in. Scanned the hallway before stepping out again. Secured all her