Catherine poured herself a second glass of wine. She didn’t offer one to Matt, even though her manners almost compelled her to. Instead, she put the bottle down and walked to the living room.

Matt helped himself to a glass. Of course he did. He drank his wine as he walked around her half-packed living room.

“You’re not moving,” he said.

“The condo is on the market.”

“That may be the case, but in this market you would have sold it in a day—and you listed it two months ago. You don’t want to move, hence a half-packed house.”

“Don’t psychoanalyze me, Matt.”

He sat in the chair across from her and put his glass on a coaster. Matt had always been able to get under her skin, like an annoying little brother. Just the way he was looking at her made her... What? Nervous? Hardly. Angry, more like it. Frustrated that he wouldn’t leave her alone. Nostalgic for a time when life wasn’t so complicated and painful.

He said, “The Triple Killer is back.”

“I got your messages. And Tony’s.”

“I need you.”

“I resigned.”

“And your boss put you on a sabbatical.”

“Formality. I’m going into private practice.”

“You’ll die on the vine.”

“This job has cost me my marriage. My family. Or do you not care about anything or anyone but yourself?”

She said it to make him angry, and she saw a flash of his Cuban temper. But he controlled it. Matt had become much better at controlling his temper as he aged.

“Catherine,” he said softly. “Chris loves you. Lizzy loves you.”

“Stop.” She was not going to talk about her family with Matt.

“Dammit, Catherine, you brought it up! Chris is my best friend—we both know you think you need to be punished and that’s why you left him. He’s giving you time and space, even though I told him not to.”

She hated that Chris had talked about their relationship with Matt. She probably shouldn’t blame him—he needed someone to vent to. And probably better to Matt than Chris’s sister—who had never liked Catherine—or a colleague. Still. It bothered her on multiple levels.

“Stay out of my life, Matt. You just don’t get it. I’m broken. I can’t do the job anymore. I don’t want to do the job anymore.”

“That’s bullshit, Catherine. You’re the single best profiler the FBI has. You’re the one who has these skills, this awesome and terrifying ability to get into the heads of killers. Yeah, it sucks, it hurts, but you’ve saved people. That’s all you’ve ever wanted to do. Help the helpless and put the bad guys behind bars.”

She hated that Matt knew her so well. It’s why she had been avoiding him for so long. Without him in her ear, she had almost convinced herself that she could walk away from this work without regrets. Yet he was right. And he knew he was right. Her job was more than a job. The dark side of humanity had called out to her since she was young. But at what cost?