He shook his head. “Not yet.” His broad shoulders forced her legs further apart as he settled between them. Touching his tongue to her, he stayed with the slow theme, teasing her until her legs quivered and her heart raced. Leaving her clinging to the precipice, he kissed his way back up to her lips, pushed into her and sent her over the edge with a sharp cry of release that took him with her.

With his lips pressed to her neck, he whispered, “Happy New Year.”

Chapter 6

While Nick spent New Year’s Day packing up his Arlington house, Sam sat hunched over her laptop scrolling through every scrap of information she could find on Clarence Reese. In the meantime, Gonzo and Arnold were leading the manhunt for him on the streets. Through her research, Sam learned he’d grown up blocks away from her Ninth Street childhood home and wondered if perhaps he’d had a neighborhood altercation with her father. A call to Tracy, who was just a year older than Clarence, yielded nothing useful since she had no recollection of being in school with anyone with that name.

By noon, Sam was ready to tear her hair out. The connection had to be there. It had to be. Her stomach rumbled, and she decided to venture downstairs on a fishing expedition. She found her father sitting at the kitchen table scanning the reading device propped in front of his wheelchair. Bending to kiss his cheek, she said, “How’s it going?”

“All right. What’ve you been up to all morning?”

“Just catching up on some paperwork.”

“Nice party last night.”

“That was all Nick.”

“No kidding, really?”

His sarcastic eye roll amused her. “Would’ve been beer at O’Leary’s if I’d gotten my way.”

“Gives you a run for your money, that boy. I like that about him.”

Anxious to change the subject, she nodded to the reader. “What’s that?”

“The Post.”

“What’re they saying about the DD yesterday?” she asked in what she hoped was a nonchalant tone as she opened a diet cola and joined him at the table.

“Most of what you already know. They interviewed some neighbors and friends who’re shocked. Never would’ve suspected he’d be capable. The usual. The kids and the wife were well liked, but he kept to himself. Apparently, he just got laid off.”

“Something about his name is familiar to me.” Sam watched her father intently. “Ring any bells with you?”

“Nope.”

She hoped the disappointment didn’t show on her face. “I read that he grew up on Seventh.”

“I saw that. Who’s running the investigation?”

Nothing, Sam thought with dejection. If Skip Holland had ever met Clarence Reese, he didn’t remember it. “Gonzo and Arnold.”

“Losing his job could’ve triggered something.”