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“You gave me a list last night. Don’t you remember?”

She smiles and my suitcase goes down. I pull her to me and kiss her one long, last time. “Yes. I want all of that done when I get back.”

“Or what?” Her expression is coy. “You’ll spank me?”

“Hell, no.” I exhale a laugh before I kiss her again. “If I say that, you’ll never do it.”

“Hmm... I suppose you have a point.”

“If I didn’t have to be in Baltimore...” One more kiss, and I’m out the door, only pausing once to look back at the beautiful creature who belongs to me. Damn, I’m ready to fast track this week’s business and get us all home.

Patrick’s in the office when I get there, and he’s got three law books out on our shared desk.

“You could take the office down the hall,” I quip, causing him to look up.

“You’re freakishly happy,” he turns back to the book he’s studying. “Mariska’s a fucking miracle worker.”

It’s true, and even my annoying little brother can’t bring me down this morning.

“Anyway, you left.” He’s making notes on a yellow legal pad. “Derek gave me this office, and it has all my shit in it.”

It’s true. When I came back from Saudi, I was put in Derek’s old office, but I never felt right about taking my CO’s spot, even if he had moved to Wilmington full-time.

“Working behind a desk isn’t my thing. What have you found out?”

“Not much.” He straightens and tilts his head, stretching his neck. Patrick’s five years younger than me, and no matter how much we age, he always seems like a kid. Our little sister Amy is a perennial baby.

“Hit me,” I say, loading my briefcase with my pick of the worst reports from Dere

k’s “Sloan files.”

“I need to talk to Melissa. She’s been pretty pissed at me, but her evidence against Sloan is going to be critical. She’s got email receipts of his transactions with hookers, photographs of her face when... he beat her...”

He pauses to grimace, and I share his sentiment. Melissa’s a beautiful, classy woman. She’s Derek’s fiancée, Dex’s mom. The idea of some fucker hitting her makes us all a little crazy with rage.

Clearing his throat, he continues, looking guilty. “I hate to ask her for those things. I know how much she wants to put it behind her. But they’ll pretty much make the case for Derek’s taking him out.”

“You’re sure Sloan has no surviving relatives?”

He drops into the desk chair and starts clicking. “Only distant ones, and most of them are older, infirm.”

Pausing, I lean against the doorway. “You realize, if this does go to trial, you’re an accessory to murder.”

His lips tighten and he nods. “I’ve never been a more willing accessory.”

“Tell me what happened that night. How exactly it went down.”

My brother’s hazel meet mine. His are more green than brown. “It was pretty fast. We were in a small conference room with a tech booth off the side.”

“Why?”

“Star was the bait, but Derek didn’t want her to be too far from where we could help her if things got ugly.” He looks down at his hand and slowly makes a fist. “That asshole manhandled her pretty good. Slammed her head against the wall, then he had her pinned, his forearm against her neck.”

“Shit,” I exhale, stepping forward into my old office, thinking. I’ve only known Star about a week. She’s a little rough around the edges, but she’s sweet with her kid. Despite her painfully obvious crush on Derek, she seems like a smart girl. “So he was killing her?”

“I think so.” He’s still looking at his hands, remembering. “He had a reputation for liking it rough, and I was pretty preoccupied while it was happening.”

For a moment, I’m stumped trying to figure out what my little brother might’ve been doing besides keeping his eyes on his target.