“None of them were around long enough to feel the kind of passion you’d have to feel to do what was done to him—except Natalie, but that was over and done with years ago. If she were going to kill him, she probably would’ve done it a long time ago.”

“We’re going to talk to her tomorrow.”

“How do you do it?” he asked.

“Do what?”

“Keep up this pace. It’s relentless.”

“You spent a night in your office this week. You do what it takes to get your job done. That’s all I’m doing. Usually it’s worse than this. I often have multiple cases going, but thanks to the forced vacation my load has been light lately.”

“But dealing with murderers and victims and medical examiners… It’s got to be so draining.”

“It can be. Other times it’s exhilarating. There’s nothing quite like putting all the pieces together and coming out with a picture that leads to conviction.”

“Did you always want to be a cop?” He hadn’t asked that question the first time they met, when she had just made detective.

“That subject is kind of complicated.”

“How so?”

She fiddled with the handle on her mug. “I’m the youngest of three girls. I think I was about twelve when it dawned on me that the only reason I’d been born was because my father wanted a son so desperately.”

“You can’t know that for sure.”

“Oh, yes I can. My mother all but told me.”

“Sam…”

She hated the sympathy that radiated from him. “So, knowing I’d disappointed him just by being born, I set out to win his approval every way I could think of. Name a high school sport—I played it. I went with him to Redskins games, Orioles games. He even branded me with a boyish nickname.”

“You’ll be Samantha to me,” Nick declared. “From this moment on.”

She sneered at him. “I don’t let anyone call me that.”

“You’re going to have to make an exception because to me there’s nothing boyish about you. You’re all woman. Every beautiful, sexy inch of you.”

Her face heated under the intensity of his gaze. “I’ll allow an occasional Samantha, but don’t overdo it. And not in front of anyone else.”

“I’ll save it for only the most important, private moments,” he said with a grin that melted her bones. “So, you became a cop to please him, too.”

“Huh?” she asked, captivated by his hazel eyes.

“Your father.”

“Oh. Right. At first that’s what it was about. I won’t deny that. But I discovered I have a knack for it—or I thought I did until recently.”

“You do. You can’t let one incident shake your confidence or your faith in yourself.”