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Jayson pulled back, his eyes red and swollen. “Love, Charlie? I’ve never heard you even come close to that. Is it really like that?”

Charlotte tried to stop crying, but the best she could do was slow it to a whimper. “She’s the most amazing person I’ve ever met.”

“I mean, apart from me, naturally.”

Charlotte wiped her face with the bottom of her shirt as she laughed despite herself. “That goes without saying.”

Slipping o his lap and onto the seat next to him, she asked the question burning fiercely on her tongue. “Can you forgive me, Jay?”

His face was so pained when he looked at her, it was almost a grimace. “We’ve been through some shit, Charlie. I never, ever thought you’d keep something from me. Not something like this.”

She gulped and dried her face again. “I know. It’s awful.

I’m so ashamed of myself.” Her voice cracked, threatening another deluge. “I was so scared that if I told you, you’d pull me out. I thought I could manage it and find a way.”

“I know,” he said softly. “But at the end of the day you didn’t trust me enough to know that there’s nothing I would put over you. Not an investigation. Not a job.” He paused and cleared his throat, but Charlotte was crying again. He took a deep breath. “This is going to take me a minute to get over,”

he admitted. “But we’ve got more pressing problems.”

“Can you do anything for her?” Charlotte dried her painfully irritated eyes as her throat burned when she spoke.

“It’s so far above my pay grade, Charlie. This isn’t a parking ticket or some recreational pot charge. I couldn’t even if I wanted to,” he explained, his face sullen.

“And do you want to?”

Jayson looked away at the black screen of his TV for a while. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I can’t say I didn’t have a feeling you were getting mixed up with her. That’s why I didn’t think it was a good idea to . . . get to know her.”

“I know. And I’m sorry. I couldn’t help—”

“But,” he interrupted before she could try to explain again, “I’m sure in time . . . after a lot of time and after

you’ve paid for so many wings and beer,” he paused and turned serious, “from Sharky’s, not Antonio’s,” he specified.

Charlotte’s heart lifted. She didn’t expect him to joke with her. As much as she prayed for forgiveness, she didn’t dare hope for it. “I’ll do anything to earn your trust back.”

Jayson covered her quivering hands with his. “I trust you, Charlie. You made a mistake. A big one, but only because you weren’t honest with me. If you found someone worth making such a colossal mistake for, then she must be some hell of a lady.”

“She is,” Charlotte agreed, her heart sinking into her sore stomach.

“I hope I get the chance to meet her.” He smiled, but there was sadness in its curves. “But, as for what I can do to help…” He hesitated as regret bent his features. “I don’t know.”

Desperate to plead her case, Charlotte moved closer and squeezed his hands. “Do you really think what she’s doing should be a crime, Jay? If they had a camera filming them and were posting it online, it would be legal adult entertainment. Or if one of these guys bought a person gifts and—”

“Slow down, Charlie. I’m not saying I personally think it should be illegal.” He rubbed her hand with his thumb. “But what I think doesn’t matter. The chief is obsessed with this case. The way he’s fixated on bringing Alexandra Leon, in

—”

“Alex,” she corrected.

“The way he talks about getting Alex , you would think she stood him up at the altar and then ran over his dog while

desecrating his grandma’s ashes.”

Charlotte raised her brows. “That was . . . colorful.”

“It’s probably an understatement. We’ve had meetings every week for almost a year. Even before we got you in there.”

“What the hell do you talk about?” Charlotte asked.