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The community hated her She’d lost her job before she’d even started

This was hardly the first case where she’d bucked popular opinion Her whole fa justice Her entire life she’d been raised to respect the law Those who didn’t obey it deserved to suffer the consequences She’d spent years doing her best to put criminals behind bars This case was no different The police had arrested the wrong man A killer was still out there, and Nick was in intensive care, , because of their mistake

She thought of Nick playing chess with her grandfather or blowing bubbles for the girls on the front lawn and couldn’t reconcile those ies with a boy on the brink of death

Not fair Not fair Notfairnotfairnotfair

Tears burned in the corners of her eyes She tipped the glass and took another ue, and her thoughts grew fuzzy

“I know you’re hurting tonight, but whiskey isn’t the answer,” Lance said “I should know I tried that route last winter Made everything worse”

Morgan sipped Alcohol ht not be the answer, but frankly, she was out of ideas “Then what is the answer?”

Would Nick still be alive in the ?

He hadn’t done anything to deserve what had happened to hian couldn’t believe he could intentionally hurt anyone “Do you believe Nick is innocent?”

“I’uilty,” Lance said “But I don’t think we’ve found the truth yet”

“Is ment skewed? Do I just want hi to prove it?”

Warlass on the counter, she pulled away from Lance’s touch and took off her suit jacket

“I don’t know” Lance took her arms firmly in both hands “But whatever happens, none of it was your fault You’ve already given me serious doubts about the DA’s case We’ll solve this case We will find Tessa’s killer”

“Even if Nick” She couldn’t finish the sentence

But Lance understood her “Yeah Even then”

Her palh he wasn’t 100 percent convinced Nick was innocent, she should be glad to have hiation She needed someone close by as objective Someone to keep her in check

Tomorrow She’d think about the case tomorrow

Right now, the last thing she wanted was to be in control She wanted to blot out all her thoughts and simply feel The whiskey helped She leaned closer and inhaled the cedar scent of his skin Rising onto her toes, she settled her mouth on his

With all of the things that felt wrong in her life, this wasn’t one of theue sweeping into his ainst hers

She tugged at the hem of his shirt

Her hands slipped under the fabric and up the hard muscles of his back He was solid and so utterly, deliciously male The more she touched, the more she tasted, the one deep blue, the want in the her breath as he returned her kiss with equal heat

His fingers grasped her hips and pulled her against hith pressed against her belly

A tiny voice in the back of her mind warned that she wanted this particularbetween the out of control

She silenced it by sliding her hands between their bodies to caress the hard ridges of his abdo

Lance eased back, his hands taking hers and pulling them out from under his shirt “Letto eat”