He’d fucked his sister-in-law—okay, his ex-sister-in-law—but who cared? She was hotter than hot. He’d always had a crush on Julie, but until this morning he’d kept it locked tightly away, even after his divorce. Now, though, she had come on to him—she had … Christ, his thighs grew tight just thinking about what she had done to him, what they had done together.

He sat down in his office chair, staring at nothing, remembering everything about her, which is how he came to remember her request. Not that it was so out of the ordinary. The AG’s office was opening investigations left, right, and center every day of the workweek. For on weekends, we play golf, he thought wryly, recalling the words of his former boss, his tone deeply biblical. However, it wasn’t every day he was asked to open an investigation on someone from the NSA—and especially not on Luther St. Vincent, head of Directorate N, whatever the hell that was. Not that the idea wasn’t floated around the office once every couple of months, but it was always shot down by one of the attorney general’s cadre of Very Important Mandarins. Though a slowly rising star, Orrin was, sadly, not yet one of them.

Still, he knew how to open an investigation using back-channel methodology. This was to be an informal investigation, not to mention a clandestine one. There was some danger in it for him, but on the other side of the ledger he now had Julie living with him. Though she had said it was only for a day or two, he had some ideas as to how to get her to agree to stay longer. And then from that step to permanence he was fairly certain would be a snap. Wouldn’t that be a kick to the head, as far as his ex was concerned.

Turning to his computer terminal, he began to type in the long log-in code from the readout on the RSA encryption tag he kept with him at all times. The electronic tag changed the log-in code every twenty minutes, ensuring the highest level of security.

Once in, he started an investigative folder. Typing in St. Vincent’s name brought up line after line of information pulled from all of the federal data banks, including the NSA’s. Then, he settled in and started reading. He wasn’t sure what Julie was looking for, but he would note any red flags and pass them on to her, just as she had asked.

*   *   *