The blood drained from his face with a suddenness that left him reeling. It was like being thrust backward in time. The paper had faded but the ink had not, as clear as the day it was first written. He had a sudden vivid memory of sitting on the floor in Starsky’s kitchen, reading the note through tear-blurred eyes.

Please love them both...

The clamor around him grew abruptly muddled, hollow and distant as if the world was being sucked into a bottomless black hole. His hands shook. Inside his chest, his heart thundered wildly, pumping hot blood and morbidly cold fear into his ears - - the fear of failure.

She’d asked for his promise - - such a simple thing he should have been able to give forever. Starsky was his soulmate, had always been his soulmate. Terri had known that from the first moment she’d seen them together. She hadn’t asked him to protect Starsky, to watch over him or keep him from harm, but simply to love him, something he should have been able to do without conscious thought or effort.

“I entrust Ollie and Dave. Please love them both...”

Oh, shit.

It was too hard to function, to think. The bottom dropped from his world, leaving him stripped and naked, his soul exposed to the unforgivably ugly thing he’d done... how miserably he’d failed.