Laughter spilled from the conference room when Quinn walked into the Merleau office. He followed the voices, slowly prying his hands out of the tight fists he’d had them in all morning. He’d spent the night at Ward after all and instead of losing himself in a game as usual, he’d lain on the couch staring at the ceiling most of the night. That had been better than the images that blasted through his mind like a nightmare slide show every time he closed his eyes. Shane wrapped up in two sets of arms and legs. Some of the pictures were beautiful with the different skin tones writhing together, covered in sweat, but because it was Shane sporting one set of those limbs, all he felt was a weird sort of sick anger.

By two in the morning, he’d been wishing he was a drinker and had considered searching the building for liquor.

He was actually jealous. They’d made no promises to each other, but he’d believed he’d be the only one in Shane’s bed while they had this…agreement.

He recognized Hollis’s southern drawl as he strolled into the room and found Shane, Ethan, Hollis, and Hollis’s fiancé, Ian Pierce, sitting around the conference table.

“Hey!” Ian stood with a welcoming smile, his slim body fashionably dressed as it was every time Quinn had ever seen him—this time in what he probably considered casual wear. Skinny jeans, ripped at the knee and a beige cashmere sweater. A thin, multi-colored scarf draped his neck to dangle in front of his chest. “I didn’t know you were going to be here, Quinn. It’s nice to see you. I brought plenty.” He pointed at two open boxes of pastries. “You probably have to fight over these when I take them to Rowe’s office. Noah hoards them.”

“He does,” Quinn agreed as he grabbed a napkin and a pastry. He glanced down to see how wrinkled his button-down was over his T-shirt and jeans and grimaced when he realized it was worse than usual. He couldn’t imagine pairing a scarf with his sense of hobo style. “I love these. Thanks.”

He sat across from Shane, who watched him quietly. His heart squeezed when he took in the circles under his eyes and the wild disarray of his curly, black hair. Apparently, he’d had quite the night with his…friends.

Quinn wasn’t sure he could swallow any of the food without throwing it back up, but he forced himself to take a bite and keep his expression as blank as he could.

We never made any promises. We never made any promises.

“Shane, you look like shit.”

Shane curled his lip at Hollis. “Everybody has a rough night now and then.”

“Is it the case? Because I can help with it.” Hollis, like Quinn, didn’t spend a lot of time on his wardrobe, preferring jeans and T-shirts. His leather jacket creaked as he reached into the box and snagged another chocolate-filled pastry.

Shane’s frown and rolled eyes screamed exasperation. “I already told you that I can’t tell you about this one.”

“But you can tell him?” Hollis pointed at Quinn. “No offense, Quinn. I don’t have a problem with you, but I can’t shake this gut feeling that whatever you guys are working on is dangerous.”

“How could you think that when I’ve told you nothing about it?” Shane lifted an eyebrow.

“Because it’s taking a toll on you. It’s all over your face.” Hollis threw a crumpled-up napkin at him. “You look like someone rode you hard and put you away wet.”

Quinn choked on his pastry, coughing so hard, Ethan pounded on his back. “I’m okay,” he squeaked with a smile of thanks to Shane’s business partner, a man with salt-and-pepper hair and a solemn face. Holy fuck—the images that went through his mind with Hollis’s words probably burned permanent places. He had to bite his tongue before he blurted out that hot threesomes would make anyone look that wiped out. He looked up to find Shane watching him closely, his mouth turned down.

“Here, have some of my coffee,” Shane said, passing his cup to Quinn.

“Thanks,” Quinn murmured, offering a smile to both Ethan for the back pounding and Shane.

“It’s his cop instincts,” Ian chimed in suddenly, watching Quinn sip from Shane’s cup before he looked back at Shane. “They’re annoying as hell. He’s like a dog with a bone sometimes, locking his teeth and never letting go.”

Hollis opened his mouth, then snapped it shut as a slow grin pulled up one corner of his lips.

Ian shook his head. “I have instincts where you’re concerned, too, and you just about said something about bones, didn’t you?”

“It was the ‘teeth’ part I particularly enjoyed. Can’t get anything past you,” he murmured, his arm shooting out to roll Ian’s chair closer. Quinn was surprised when he wrapped a hand around Ian’s scarf and tugged him in for a kiss, his mouth landing on Ian’s smile. Ian’s quick caress of his cheek made something deep in Quinn clench.

Quinn couldn’t imagine feeling that comfortable in a relationship, being that demonstrative around other people. He glanced at Shane again to find the older man had leaned over the table, crossing his arms, tilting his head, brown eyes doing that annoying probing thing he did. Quinn hoped his smile didn’t scream “Fuck you and your hard-riding threesome!” as he passed his coffee back.

Shane pushed away from the table and stood. “Hollis, you can keep digging all you want, but this time, it’s not going to work. If I decide to bring you in, I will. Come on, Quinn. I do have some things to show you.”

Quinn followed Shane into his office and did a double take in the doorway. Haphazard stacks of papers battled for space on Shane’s desk with Chinese food boxes and sweet tea bottles. The scent of moo shu pork and sweet and sour chicken permeated the air like it was a second-floor office over a Chinese restaurant.

“Sorry about the smell. I fell asleep at my desk and knocked food onto the carpet. I’ll have to get it cleaned.” He walked around the desk and picked up a stack of papers. “I spent the night reading emails. When my eyes started watering from staring at a lit screen, I printed them out. I don’t think the hacker is after these.”

He’d spent the night there? Again, Quinn had to bite his tongue because he was dying to ask what time Shane had arrived. “What do you mean?” he asked instead.

“I started digging into the death of his wife.” Shane dropped the papers and sat heavily in his chair, making it creak. He scrubbed his hands over his face and rubbed his eyes. “Quinn, shut the door, will you?”

Unease raised the hair on the back of his neck as he did as asked. “Tell me.”

“I’m starting to wonder if her death was an accident.”

His stomach dropped to his feet—just as it had during the night when the thought had occurred to him as well. He stayed quiet so he could hear Shane’s thoughts without interruption.

“The man has already proven he’s capable of violence, and there are several instances in the emails where Brenda said that she feared for her life. What if he did kill her and that’s what the hacker is after? Proof of a murder.” He sighed heavily and dropped his forehead in his hands, then looked up at Quinn, eyes bleak. “This is just supposition. I have no proof, so I can’t take this to the cops. Ethan and I worked hard to build this business, and being wrong could destroy everything.”

“I know. What do you think we should do then? I know what Rowe would do if this happened at our office.”

Shane’s lips twisted. “Yeah, so do I and we’re not going there. Look, Quinn, if this is what we’re facing, I want to get this guy. Just like you. But we have to do this legally. The need to find this hacker has gone past critical. We’re going to have to step up our game and when we do find the hacker, we’re not going to instantly turn the person over to Spring either.”

Quinn just stood there, feeling awkward, embarrassment from the night before still a hot flush in his body. He turned to his workstation and set his messenger bag on the desk. “I’ll go ahead and check all my traps, see if anything else happened overnight.”

“I still have emails to go through, and I want to go through your Taft pictures again. Plus, I was thinking about the hacker’s reference to Villefort and Danglars in the second email. If the mayor did kill his wife, he would have most likely needed help to get away with it.”

“Oh shit.…” Quinn softly whispered as random thoughts started falling into place so that the bigger picture was finally coming into focus.

“What?”

“The hacker hasn’t just been after the mayor. We’ve already seen her taking apart his network.”

“We figured that from the Villefort and Danglars message,” Shane said, his face twisted with confusion.

Quinn shook his head. He wasn’t saying this right. “The rash of scandals that have hit the city recently. If the mayor wanted to hide a murder, he probably would have needed the medical examiner in on it because he would have been able to cover up anything that pointed to murder in his report.”

Shane thrust both hands through his hair and tightened his fingers in the curls. “The same one who’s now being investigated for money laundering.”

“And the mayor lives in Indian Hill.”

“Where the chief of police is now embroiled in a sex scandal and is poised to lose his job as well as his family.”

“We know the mayor is one of the four. Who’s left?”

Shane dropped his hands back to his desk and shook his head. “I don’t know. The election is just over two weeks away. We’re running out of time.”

Quinn paused and licked his dry lips. He hated how…hesitant they were being with each other. He missed the flirting. That feeling of closeness. He should never have lost his temper and his shoulders slumped as he sat down.

“Quinn?”

“Yeah?” He looked over his shoulder to find Shane not looking at him for a change.

“I missed all your texts this morning.”

He had no idea what to say to that, so he gave what he hoped was a realistic laugh and faced his desk again. “I’ll make sure to bug you with extra ones next time to make up for it.”

“I hope you do.”

There was something in Shane’s voice that sent pinpricks over his arms and the back of his neck. If he’d had to describe it, the closest word would be sad. No, not sad. Melancholy.

Hell, he much preferred smiling, flirting Shane. Too bad he didn’t have the social skills to lure him back. With his palms sweating, Quinn logged in and began to methodically check his data crawlers.

Shane sighed and papers rustled as he got to work.

A couple of hours passed with Shane only leaving the room to grab them more coffee. Quinn still hadn’t remembered to bring his creamer, but he drank a cup to be polite. As the sweet flavor hit his tongue, he moaned and pulled the cup away in surprise.

“Where did you get this?” he asked, his eyes bouncing up to take in Shane’s slightly anxious expression.

“A new creamer I picked up this morning.” A little half smile lifted one corner of his mouth. “I noticed when we stopped at Starbucks the other day before going to Krohn how you take your coffee. Thought you’d like this better than our regular creamer. That work?”

“Yeah, it’s perfect. Thanks.”

Shane’s smile grew and he nodded. The tension that had been holding his shoulders stiff released and he relaxed a little more. “No problem.”

Quinn turned back to his computer, one hand still wrapped around the coffee cup while a gentle warmth settled in the middle of his chest. Shane noticed how he took his coffee.

He took another sip, and then he choked on it when Shane yelled.

“Shit! Quinn, come look. It’s definitely a woman.”

Quinn walked around his desk and couldn’t help his snort when he saw the old-fashioned magnifying glass in Shane’s hand. Give Shane a hat and a cigar, and he’d be the quintessential private dick.

“Look,” Shane ordered, holding the glass over a picture. Quinn leaned over and sure enough, a woman’s face had been caught on film. She had on the same ball cap and sweatshirt, but she’d been caught with her sunglasses held away from her eyes. She looked to be in her forties with strands of dark hair pulled back in a ponytail.

“I wonder where her hair was at the Conservatory,” he mused.

“Tucked up in the hat,” Shane said, shrugging. “Or she chopped it off. Who knows? But that’s definitely her.” Shane tapped his fingers on his desk. “I don’t know why but she looks familiar. Sort of. Like I’ve seen her face but different.”

“That makes no sense.”

Shane scrubbed his hands over his face. “Shit, I know. But it’ll come to me.”

Quinn leaned his butt on Shane’s desk and crossed his arms. “Pretty sure we’re looking at the hacker.”

“I think so, too.”

There was a ding on Quinn’s computer and he walked over to his desk, freezing in surprise when he saw what it was from.

“Holy shit, Shane, an email just came into Brenda Spring’s secret account.”

Shane shoved away from his desk and came close.

Quinn clicked it open, then raised his eyebrow at Shane, who read the email aloud.

You’ve read all my emails. Now come get the rest of the story.

Cincinnatus, Sawyer Point

Saturday

8:45 a.m.