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“Because you’re so green your almost neon,” he replied with a laugh.

Sloane should have been insulted, but she couldn’t really dispute the fact. “Should I dehydrate because I’m still new?”

She leaned against the counter next to the sink.

He chuckled, glancing at her. “You must be keeping poor Hal on his toes.” Turning o the water and setting the cup on a rack to dry, the man crossed his arms and leaned against the sink. “So, what are you doing here exactly?”

Sloane cons

idered making something up, but her gut said this guy would appreciate honesty and ambition. “I want to win the moot court competition.”

“It’s not a competition,” he corrected, honey eyes sparkling. “It’s a lesson.”

“Yeah sure, of course it is,” Sloane replied with a grin.

“Then let’s say I want to get the most out of my lesson.”

“And you think cheating is a good way to learn how?”

Sloane smiled. “If you consider investigating a case as much as I can cheating, then we must have very di erent understandings of what a lawyer does.”

The man considered her for a few seconds. “You’ve got a lot of drive. Don’t let it turn you into a shark,” he said before turning toward the door. “Those kinds of lawyers might win sometimes, but they lose a lot more than they bargain for.”

Sloane couldn’t let him leave without getting something out of him. Without moving from her relaxed position, she

called out to him. “Is that all you’re going to give me? A greeting card message?”

He laughed and paused at the door before looking over his shoulder. “In the law library there’s a red binder. They’ve been using the same mock case for decades. If you think looking at it before your colleagues is part of an ethical investigation, you can go looking for it.”

Sloane resisted the urge to pump her fist in the air.

Instead, she waited a few seconds before strolling out of the kitchen.

Morning training couldn’t move quickly enough. Instead of listening to how evidence is admitted, which she already knew, she thought about how she was going to make the most of her advantage. A few hours weren’t a lot but considering they’d be interviewing the same mock witnesses, having more time to think about her questions might give her a leg up. It couldn’t hurt.

The moment they broke for lunch, Sloane slipped out of the room and went on the hunt for the law library. She vaguely remembered being shown where it was on their first day, but it had been a long month since then.

Eventually, Sloane slipped into the surprisingly well-appointed room. Dark wood bookshelves lined the walls and faced beautiful wood tables at the center. It was by far the nicest thing she’d seen, but judging by the complete absence of life, no one ever used it.

Starting at the first bookshelf, Sloane scanned the thick brown tomes from floor to ceiling. She’d gotten halfway through the stacks when the door creaked open. Formulating

a reason for being in there as she stood from where she was squatting, Sloane relaxed at the sight.

“Who told you?” Frodo asked, stalking toward her like an angry little gnome.

Sloane put her hands on her hips, staring her down as she approached. “Maybe the same person who told you,” she countered.

When Frodo stopped a few inches away from her, she shifted from irate to amused. “I doubt that,” she decided, smirking to brandish a Mario Lopez dimple as she pushed up the glasses slipping down her nose.

“And why’s that?” Sloane pushed.

Frodo took a step closer, filling her nostrils with the almond scent of drugstore shampoo. “Because you’re looking in the wrong place,” she explained, her words low and menacing before she turned on her heels and walked out of sight behind a row of bookshelves. “And you don’t have any friends,” she added loudly.

Sloane couldn’t stop herself from following. It wasn’t the binder she cared too much about, but she was interested in what Frodo was doing.

Behind a few rows of bookshelves, there was a dusty old copy machine next to a long, wide, filing cabinet. When she walked in, Frodo was already holding the beat-up red binder with training materials on the spine.

Frodo walked toward her as if doing her best impression of a cat stalking prey. “When I saw you come in here, I knew this was what you were going for.” Her eyes were focused on her, but instead of bearing an accusation, Frodo looked