“You heard me. I’ll go to Captain Hart. I’ll lay out all the evidence, like I just did for you, and let him decide if it’s worthwhile to reopen the investigation.”

For a long moment, Jensen just stared at Micah. Then…

“Fine,” the man snapped. “You can stay on Nico’s case, but I’m taking the lead, and we’re not reopening the Hooker Hunter investigation unless you can provide me with enough evidence – hard evidence – to justify doing so, understand?”

Micah was tempted to argue further. Despite his threats, however, he really didn’t want to go to his father. Not only would it be a hard hit to his reputation, he honestly wasn’t sure who the man would side with – him or Jensen. “The case stays close – for now,” he agreed reluctantly, “but we both take the lead on the case. I… I promised Nico’s parents.”

Jensen looked him up and down, likely trying to sense if this was truly a sticking point for Micah. “Fine,” he said tersely after a moment. “In that case, put in a request for a warrant that you can serve to Nico’s cell service provider while I finish up at the crime scene. That site he webcammed for, too.””

Micah was pretty sure partners weren’t supposed to boss each other around, but he nodded anyway, not up for more arguing. “Sure. That shouldn’t be an issue now that there’s…” A body. Because Nico was dead. “…proof of foul play.”

Jensen frowned. “Yeah, murder.” He continued to eye Micah. “Take lunch when you’re finished filing for that warrant. You look like shit.” With that parting shot, Jensen turned and stalked off.

When he disappeared around a corner, Micah slouched against the wall, his head making a dull thunk when he closed his eyes and allowed it to fall backward against the plaster. It may have been a shitty thing to say, but Micah had zero doubts that Jensen was right about him looking like garbage.

Along with a pounding headache, his stomach had been in knots all morning (the vomiting earlier hadn’t even helped all that much), and his eyes felt sore even though it hadn’t been him sobbing until he was choking on his breath in interview room three – it had been Mrs. Sanchez.

Because Nico was no longer just missing; he was dead.

Because Micah hadn’t been able to find him in time.

Instead, he’d been off fucking around with a frickin’ billionaire mafia boss, having the time of his life while-

Stop.

Micah knew he had to stop the onslaught of self-flagellating thoughts before he drove himself crazy. And he knew from experience that the best way to shut his brain off was to keep busy, so after taking a deep breath in through his nose, he pushed himself off against the wall and got back to work.