“I’m sorry,” I said behind her.

She stood bent over the counter, scrawling something down.

Her shoulders stiffened at the sound of my voice but relaxed in the next breath. “Thank you,” she murmured.

She dropped the pencil she’d been holding then turned to look at me. Her pale green eyes were turbulent with emotion, the tears she hadn’t allowed to fall spiking on her lashes. “It’s why I became a cop, you know. I’m going to focus on fraud. I don’t want anybody to go through what Mary Jo and her parents went through.”

“You went through it too,” I said softly.

She swallowed hard. “I didn’t lose my dad.”

“But you were close.”

She opened her mouth, then closed it, giving me a jerky nod. “They were like another set of parents. My mom died when I was so young…Mary Jo’s mom…” She sniffed and laughed, the sound watery. “Half the time, I called her Mom too. They moved not long after the funeral. Needed a new start. Mary Jo and I, we tried to keep in touch for a while, but eventually, she stopped calling, stopped writing. When I’d call her, she wouldn’t stay on the phone long. She needed a clean break. I understand that.”

She’d lost all of them.

Something in my chest ached, and I wanted to reach out, pull her against me.

But she looked so fragile.

Shit, no wonder her brother had come to talk to me.

“I’m sorry,” I said again, uncertain what else I could offer.

She gave a jerky nod and turned back to the counter. I watched, feeling useless as she reached up to the cabinet over the refrigerator, then closed it without getting anything out. A hollow laugh echoed out of her, and she said, “I want a drink, but I need to get to the store and buy some damn whiskey. The only thing I’ve got here are a couple of lousy beers.”

Uncertain of my reception, I moved up behind her. She went stiff as I got closer, and I waited for her to turn, to pull away, to do something – anything – that made it clear she didn’t want me this close to her.

She turned slowly and faced me.

“Suria called,” I said, the words dragging slowly out of me. “Apparently, Joelle insisted. She wanted us both to know she thinks we were overreacting.” I thought back to how I’d laid into her, and while I still didn’t like that she’d gone to talk to my kid sister, I had to wonder what I would do in her place.

“She’s wrong,” Ravenna said, putting her hands on the counter behind her, curling her fingers around the edge. She angled her chin up, meeting my eyes levelly. “I appreciate it – she seems like a sweet kid, but I knew going in that I was crossing a line. She told me she was eighteen, but I could see in her eyes she was lying. I never really asked her anything. Once I figured out that she was a minor…” She huffed out a heavy breath and shrugged. “Anyway, that’s beside the point.”

Was it?

I had to wonder.

Learning that she hadn’t asked Joelle anything, having Joelle insisted we’d overreacted, all of it was making me rethink everything.

Unaware of my train of thought, Ravenna continued to speak. “Look, I’ve got baggage when it comes to Gabriel Marks, Nicco. Maybe you understand more about that now.”

“Yeah.” With a nod, I settled against the counter opposite her, studying her while need pulsed inside me. I’d missed her. It hadn’t been that long since I’d touched her, yet it felt like months had passed since I’d held her in my arms, since I’d touched her. “I still want to help you bring him down. Suria and I both do. We’ve got baggage of our own when it comes to him.” I hitched up a shoulder and tried not to think about the way the t-shirt she wore so lovingly outlined her breasts. “Joelle wants to help too. But we’re not letting her get close to Marks. Not after the shit he pulled with her the last time.”

Ravenna’s eyes met mine, her brow winging up, but I shook my head. It didn’t seem like the time to go into detail about everything Marks had done to his kid – what else he had been willing to do.

“She’s afraid of him,” she commented, her eyes holding mine in an unblinking stare.

I inclined my head. “Yes.”

“Why…” She stopped and shook her head, lifting her gaze to focus on the ceiling. “I don’t get it. Why would either of them want to help? Why do you?”

“Well, there’s the fact that Gabriel Marks is a first-class scum bag,” I said easily. I shrugged when that teased a faint smile out of her. “There’s no other way to put it. Unless you want me to get rude.”

“I can get plenty rude myself when it comes to him. But you’ve been out of his life for twenty years. You told me that your sisters were recently estranged. Why do you want to get pulled back into that?” she asked, her voice soft.

“Maybe none of us like knowing what kind of man he is…maybe we don’t like to think about him being out there destroying lives,” I told her. “You don’t have to be a cop to care about shit like that.”

Her cheeks flushed slightly, and she looked away. Silence stretched out between us, heavy and weighted. It was broken when she finally heaved out a hard sigh and reached up to rub at the space between her eyebrows like she was bearing the same headache I did. “I know that. I just don’t know why people would want to wade into this mess if they don’t have to.”

“You don’t have to. You just feel like you should. Maybe it’s the same way with us. He’s our father.” I had to force the word out. It left a nasty taste on my tongue, and I felt the urge to rinse my mouth out – find a toothbrush or something. Maybe that would take the bad taste away.

“You’re not responsible for the things your father did, Nicco,” she pointed out.

I wondered how she’d feel about the things Suria had done – the things she’d been raised to do. She had no plans to go back to that life, but it had been all she’d known, all she’d ever had a chance at knowing. Would Ravenna be so forgiving then?

“Do you want to talk to Suria?” I asked, almost reluctant to put the question out there.

At some time, all the ugly, dirty history would come out. There was no way to avoid it.

Then we’d just have to see where the chips fell.

Ravenna nodded. “Should we do it now?”

“No.” I crossed the floor and stood in front of her, wondering what she would do when I touched her.

Slowly, I reached up and cupped her cheek, her skin soft and warm against my palm. She shivered a little under my touch, her eyes widening, her lips parting.

“No…we shouldn’t talk to her now?” she asked, tipping her head back to stare into my eyes. “Why not?”

I lowered my head, rubbing my lips across hers. “I’ve got other things I want to do right now.”

She took a sharp breath of air in, sealing our mouths together. I licked my tongue over her lips, and she opened for me, a willing invitation. I was more than happy to take that invitation too. Sliding my tongue past her lips, I groaned at the taste of her. Sweet and hot. I’d never get enough of her.

Ravenna rose onto her toes and curled her arms around my neck.

Under the thin tank, I could feel her breasts crushing against my chest as she pressed herself tight to me. I skimmed my hands up her sides to cup the warm flesh in my hands.

She sucked in a harsh breath and tore her mouth from mine, her head falling back, limp, leaving the long elegant line of her neck exposed. I bent my head and dragged my mouth down the pretty curve, pressed my lips to the flutter of her pulse.

“I’ve missed you,” I whispered against her flesh.

“I missed you too.” She tangled her fingers in my hair and dragged my head back down, and a second later, she fused her lips to mine again.

It was a hungry, desperate kiss, one that fired the hunger simmering inside my blood. Not that I needed to be fired anymore. She was already in my blood, under my skin, in my soul.

“Ravenna,” I muttered against her lips, cradling the back of her skull in my hand.

She moaned against my mouth, a hungry, plaintive sound.

Half-mindless already, I deepened the kiss and pulled her even closer.