His lips twitched. “The vengeance dude. Absolutely.” He winced when she poked him in the side. “Ow. That hurt.”

She scoffed. “No, it didn’t. It hurt me worse. You’re like poking a brick wall. I think I broke my finger.”

He lifted the finger to his lips and kissed it. “There. Better.”

She huffed, flustered, a blush making her cheeks rosy. “It’s fine, thank you. Focus, Diesel.” She pointed the finger that he’d kissed at his laptop. “You’ve got this entity here, LJM, that bought the Brewers’ house, but no money actually changes hands.”

“That I’ve been able to find.”

She waved his words away. “Either way, a week later Brewer gets killed by a mysterious bald guy who just breezed back by to check on a kid that Brewer had sedated and had been trying to remove from the house. Which isn’t threatening at all.” Sarcasm poured off her.

She was intoxicating like this, her mismatched eyes alive and sparkling. He had to force himself to listen to what she was saying.

“I’m thinking it’s safe to say that Brewer is—was—a bad man,” she said dryly. “He tried to do something to Joshua. Thankfully Michael saved Joshua from whatever that was. He raped Michael. He took photos of both of the boys and neglected them while their addict mother didn’t feed them enough food and threw bowls at their heads. Maybe Brewer also hurt this LJM person, and the Raguel vengeance dude”—she glared up at him, daring him to laugh—“was out to ruin Brewer.”

Hearing the word raped effectively eliminated any desire he might have had to even smile. “That makes sense.”

She sighed, sounding frustrated. “But why all the companies? What purpose do they serve? If LJM is about revenge, why not connect it straight to Raguel? Why tangle it up with all these shell companies?”

“Because whoever bought Brewer’s house does have something to hide. It took me forever to unwind all these companies.”

She rolled her eyes. “It took you a few hours.”

“For a task like this, a few hours seems like forever.”

“Well, the company names have significance. Someone took a lot of time setting them up and then tangling them together. Once we figure out what they have to hide, the companies should make more sense.”

We. She’d said we, making his heart flutter hopefully. “Like I said, your theory makes sense. Very smart.” He stole a quick glance at her, wishing he had the words to tell her just how much she impressed him. “But I already knew you were smart.”

Her brows lifted pointedly. “Thanks?”

Shit. Apparently those weren’t the right words. Flustered, he squared his shoulders. “You know, you’ve got the whole doctor thing going on.” When her brows lifted even higher, he looked around the room exaggeratedly. “Do you have a ladder? I seem to be in desperate need of one.”