“You’re not the one running the escort service, Samantha.”

“But I’m the one who sent the Feds after her.”

“You were trying to protect me. I get that.”

Sam rested her head against his shoulder. “I was so scared.”

“Of what?”

“That you were really, really mad and wouldn’t forgive me for this.”

“That’s never going to happen, Sam. I was upset and shocked and a little mad. I can’t deny that. But with a minute to calm down and think it through, I blame her, not you. I mean, if there wasn’t anything for the FBI to find, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.”

“True.”

“I know what you were doing and why, and I appreciate you looking out for me.”

“I’m sorry it blew up in our faces.”

“We’ll deal with it and move on.” He turned toward her. “Is there anything else you haven’t told me?”

“No! I swear. And the only reason I didn’t tell you about asking Avery to investigate her is that there was nothing to tell. Until there was.”

He cuffed her chin. “Thanks for looking out for me.”

“I never want to do anything that makes this job harder for you than it already is.”

“I know that, babe. How’d you make out with the suspect tonight?”

“He killed himself before we could talk to him.”

Nick’s eyes went wide. “Jeez.”

“Yeah, so our most promising lead is gone, and we’re back to having jack shit almost a week after Spence died.”

“Angela wasn’t doing well tonight. The kids were weepy, and it was all too much for her. Celia and I did what we could, but I can’t for the life of me imagine what she’s going to do with a newborn on top of the two she already has.”

“I know,” Sam said, sighing. “The GoFundMe will give her the money to hire help, but that’s no substitute for having her husband.”

“I’m having a hard time thinking about anything but them and the shock of it all.”

“Me, too.” Sam curled her hand around his. “I never got to tell you what else happened today.” She filled him in on the incident at Gigi’s house.

“Oh my God, Sam. Is she okay?”

“As okay as she can be. She knows she did what she had to, but it’s still shocking and upsetting.”

“Will she be in trouble at work?”

“There’ll be a standard investigation, but it seems like obvious self-defense.”

“Wow. They must both be so upset.”

“They were, but they’ll get through this. At least I hope they will.”

“You’ll get them through it. Let’s go to bed. I’m beat, and we get to have all this fun to look forward to again tomorrow.”

“And then the wake on Sunday,” she said with a sigh.

“Ugh, that, too. I’m dreading that.”

“Same. It’s all so fucking awful. I can’t bear it.”

“Neither can I.”

Sam and her team spent all day Saturday with their heads down, interviewing informants, working the streets, talking to people of interest, and got absolutely nowhere as the press went wild with speculation about the death of Riggs Lawton in police custody and the incident at Detective Dominguez’s house the day before. Sam would brief them on all of it, eventually, but she wasn’t ready to deal with that yet.