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“Oh?”

“Yeah. Lake is into women, not men.” It was the most important detail as far as Grady was concerned. He couldn’t have a romance with a person that couldn’t be attracted to him. That was clear logic.

“You said he kissed you.”

“He did. I don’t know what that was.” Confusing as fuck is what it was.

“Did you ask him?”

“Would you just hurry up and finish eating so we can head back? We have shit to do.” And none of those things included interrogating him about his friendship—weird as it fucking was—with Lake.

Quinn hummed and then dug into his salad. Grady ate his own food, hoping to God that it was the end of the conversation.

THE SECOND THEY RETURNED to the station, Riley called them into his office.

Grady glanced at Quinn. “What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything,” Quinn said with amusement. “It’s far more likely that you’ve done something.”

“I’d know if I’d done something.”

“Just like you’d know if you were dating Lake?”

Grady’s mouth dropped open in shock, but he wasn’t able to respond to Quinn’s unfair quip before they’d reached Riley’s office.

“I want a new partner,” Grady said as soon as Quinn closed the door behind them.

“Denied.” Riley pointed at the paperwork in front of him. “What is this?”

Grady picked it up and glanced over it, though he already knew what it was. It was the request that Quinn had started yesterday and they’d finished together that morning.

“Well,” Grady drawled, “it looks like—”

“Are you seriously requesting a shoplifter do work experience in a police station? What makes you think I’m about to approve that?”

“He’s not about to steal something surrounded by thirty cops,” Quinn pointed out. Grady nodded in agreement. Quinn had talked to him about it as soon as he’d come in, and Grady had agreed it was the best decision they could come up with. Community service would just make him sullen, locking him up would only harden him, and letting him go back to the life he was currently living without doing anything had seemed wrong.

“We could have locked him up,” Grady said, “sent him to juvie, or even just sent him back to his foster parents with a slap on the wrist, and let him offend again, andthenthrow him into juvie. If that appeals to you more?”

Riley scowled and leaned back in his chair. “You think this is a good idea?”

“Yeah.”

“It gives him an opportunity he might not otherwise have,” Quinn said. “The kid was combative but not an asshole for the sake of it. I think he has a real chance to turn his life around if we can get through to him now.”

Riley sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “He’s your responsibility. One fuck up, and he’s gone, understand?”

“You got it.”

“Get out of my office.”

Grady silently pointed at Quinn and mouthed, “Yours,” as they walked out. Quinn’s smile was wry.

Lakejumpedwhenheheard Grady come through his front door, even though he hadn’t done anything wrong. Grady had given him a key. Therefore, drop-in visits while he wasn’t home were implied.

He drummed his fingers on the counter as he listened to the sounds of Grady dropping his keys in the bowl by the door, hanging up his shoulder holster, putting his gun into the safe that was tucked away under the table by the door. He had a routine when he got home. Lake felt privileged to have been let in enough that he’d learned it.

Grady stopped short in the doorway to the kitchen. “Lake,” he said in surprise.