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“It went well, I think. It’s just… I guess it bothers me I’m the only woman on the task force. It feels like tokenism. I’m the only lawyer, too. And they’re all so much older than me.”

Lock smiled. “Are you trying to tell me any of that matters to you?”

“No. It was hard enough for me to win respect in that courthouse. A lot of people still see me as an outsider. I wasn’t born and raised here. And sometimes… it isn’t always an advantage when they know who I’m married to.”

Lock sat up and tucked an errant strand of hair behind my ear. “You earned your spot in that courtroom. And you did it before you even knew my name, Mina. Everyone knows what you’re capable of. Because I know it. It’s why I first fell in love with you.”

I rolled my eyes.

“I’m serious.” He smiled. “I sat there and watched you rip Vic Jaffe’s face off during that suppression hearing. He waltzed in there, his condescending, misogynistic self, and thought he was going to intimidate you. But you stood up and blasted him.”

“Right,” I said. “It wasn’t just because you were looking at my ass.”

He laughed. The sound rolled through me. He’d come back to me from the brink of that dark place where I found him.

“It’s a fine ass. And you were looking at mine too.”

He wasn’t wrong. A little over two years ago, Lock had accompanied another boy living in Bennett’s Place to court. The boy had a hard time shaking his abusive past. He’d been arrested for shoplifting. That day I’d been assigned his case. Lock asked to talk to me out in the hall. He impressed me. I knew with Lock’s guidance the boy might stand a chance. So, I offered him a plea deal that kept him out of jail and got him into counseling. Just a few weeks ago, we got word he’d been accepted at Michigan State to pursue a business degree.

“I love you,” I said.

He furrowed his brow but kept his smile in place. “Are you okay?” he asked. He knew me too well. It shocked me sometimes how quickly we’d wrapped ourselves in each other’s lives. I barely remembered being any other way.

“It was just a long day,” I said, rising. “Come on. I’ll heat up that pasta.”

“I’m blathering on about this boy. And you spent your day talking about crime victims and figuring out how to save them. I’m sorry, Mina. My problems aren’t bigger than yours. Do you want to talk about it?”

It was like he could see right through me. But I could see through him too. He rose and took my hand.

This man had my heart. I had his. And I’d let myself get worked up over a piece of fabric and paper. It was silly. Stupid. I dedicated my life to advocating for crime victims. I’d stared down rapists, the worst abusers. I shredded murderers apart in the witness box. I knew a dangerous man when I saw one. This man had the purest heart of anyone I’d ever met.

Lock wrapped his arm around me and led me back into the house. As his fingers brushed mine, that red ribbon slipped down further on my wrist. He rubbed it with his thumb as we headed into the kitchen. That silky ribbon had always made me feel safe. Cherished. Chosen. Habit made me slide it back into place under my watch, hiding it from view. The day he gave it to me, he told me it was our secret. A tangible symbol of a bond no one else but the two of us would ever understand. Until today, it was the truest thing I knew. I could never accept that it was a lie. Could I?

THREE

Ashley Rose, our office manager, was waiting for me when I came into work the next day. She was relatively new, taking over from her aunt Geraldine who had kept the Benton County Prosecutor’s Office running for the previous three decades. So far, Ashley was a competent replacement.

She had a chunk of dark hair in front of her eyes. She also had rebellious lime-green streaks in both front pieces, framing her face. At twenty-three, she could get away with it.

“Are you going to be here or upstairs today?” she asked. “Your morning hearing got cancelled.”

“Upstairs then.”

I sorted through the few pieces of mail Ashley set aside for me. Most were paper copies of hearing notices I had coming up over the next month. Nothing I didn’t already have on my calendar. I tossed them into the pile for the shredder.

“I took two messages for you from Detective Dennison,” Ashley said. “I don’t know why he didn’t just text you directly. He knows if you don’t answer your landline in there, I’m not gonna have some secret way to get a hold of you.”

“What did he want?”

“Said something about getting a bunch of files you’re supposed to look at. He sounded kind of cranky.”

I checked my smartwatch. It was only five after nine in the morning.

“How long ago did he call?”

“Oh, it’s been going on for the last hour.”

I tossed the rest of my mail on my desk in my office kitty-corner to Ashley’s desk. “Well,” I said. “He didn’t tell me. Last I heard we were supposed to meet at ten. Let me just grab a coffee and I’ll head up.”