On just my second day in the San Diego office, I was one of dozens of agents waiting for the early meeting to begin. Everyone had seemed nervous before the outburst, but now, they all seemed to relax.

I looked up into the eyes of the young Assistant Special Agent in Charge and nearly swallowed my tongue. It was him—my one-night stand, the lips I missed, my neighbor.

Panic and bile instantly rose in my throat, but I swallowed it back.

“It’s Liis,” Val said. “Like geese but with an L, sir.”

My heart was pounding against my chest. He was waiting for someone to come forward. Life was going to go from fresh start to complicated in three, two—

“I’m Liis Lindy, sir. Is there a problem?”

When our eyes met, he paused, and utter horror washed over me in waves. Recognition lit his face, too, and for just a moment, he blanched. The strings-free one-night stand was now so tangled that I wanted to hang myself.

He quickly recovered. Whatever had made him so angry melted away for a moment, but then his face tightened, and he was back to hating everything.

Special Agent Maddox’s ferocious reputation had preceded him. Agents from all over the country knew of his tight rein and impossible expectations. I had been prepared to suffer under his supervision. I hadn’t been prepared to do so after actually being under him.

Damn it, damn it, damn it.

He blinked and then held out the file. “This FD-three-oh-two is unacceptable. I don’t know how you did things in Chicago, but in San Diego, we don’t just slap shit on paper and call it good.”

His harsh and very public criticism made me snap out of my shame spiral and back into the role of Betty Bureau.

“The report is thorough,” I said with confidence.

Despite my anger, my mind toyed with the memories of the night before—what my boss’s body had looked like under that suit, the way his biceps had flexed when he rammed himself inside me, how good his lips had felt on mine. The severity of the shitstorm I had created for myself hit me. I had no idea how I could form a sentence, much less sound confident.

“Sir,” Val began, “I would be happy to take a look at the report and—”

“Agent Taber?” Maddox said.

I half-expected her to say, Fuck off.

“Yes, sir?”

“I am perfectly capable of discerning whether I’ll accept a report or not.”

“Yes, sir,” she said again, unfazed, lacing her fingers on the table.

“Are you able to perform the job assigned to you, Agent Lindy?” Maddox asked.

I didn’t like the way he’d said my name as if it left a bad taste in his mouth.

“Yes, sir.” It felt so damn bizarre to call him sir. It made me feel too submissive. My father’s blood raged in my veins.