Tension crackles between us, but this isn’t about sex as some might assume. It’s about trust. It’s about enemies, so damn many enemies that make that trust with anyone else impossible. “There’s a new officer named North. He’s in from New York. He suggested you’re here because you’re involved in the murder.”

“And you said what?”

“That he’s attention-grabbing and he’d have to try a lot harder to get on your radar.”

Kane’s eyes narrow slightly. “They will always call me a criminal, Lilah. You knew that wouldn’t change when you put that ring on your finger.”

“You’re right. I did. So, what’s the point? And before you answer, I wanted to get rid of my badge. I was tired of the bullshit it comes with, but you thought we both needed the restraint it creates.”

“I said you and your badge keep me on the right side of things, Lilah. You are that badge. You’d bleed blue if I’d ever let that happen.”

I’m not so sure of that anymore, but I don’t correct him. I get back to business. “I’m not sure what I think of North,” I say, “but there’s a new medical examiner. Danica Day. She made a comment about me being a killer that hit me wrong.”

“Like she knew something she wasn’t supposed to know?”

“Exactly.”

His hand falls away and as Kane does nothing without purpose, there’s a message there, a prelude to what comes next. “There’s a reason Murphy doesn’t even deny wanting us together. He believes together we’re dangerous to the Society. So does the Society.”

I think of my father’s political career, backed by the Society, and how easily Kane has proven to be a thorn in their sides. He’s right. Together we can be dangerous to the Society and they know it. “And I fucking love it and so do you,” I say.

His lips quirk and I back away. “I have to go,” I say but I offer a reminder on my departure. “Officer North and Danica Day.”

I don’t have to say more. He gets it. He’ll look into them his way. And I’ll look into them my way. Two sides of one coin. And for now, I have a murder to solve rather than commit, but if this case really is about me and Kane, that might change.

And I might be okay with that.

Maybe normal is overrated.

CHAPTER SEVEN

I could focus on me. In a city that is all about ego, me is always the easiest answer. But I’m alive and the victim is dead. Someone chose her to die this night and she’s the star of this show. She’s earned that role the hard way.