"You swear you're not keeping something from me?"

"No, L. I swear it. Why would I do that?"

"Nick's not either?"

"Landon!"

The harsh reality of his brother's words sunk in. Whatever they might be-whatever manners and graces Mama Lou had drilled into them-they were brothers first. Initially by choice, and then by law.

But they always had each other's backs.

Always.

"Then she's managed to lay low and stay off the local radar."

"Does she look the same?"

"Yeah. No. I mean, I knew it was her."

Unbidden, something hard and ugly gripped his throat. It pulled at him, raking his chest wide open and leaving dark, oily gashes in its wake. Without warning, his body simply crumpled, the hot tears stinging the backs of his eyes as he dropped onto the couch. "She fucking asked me-"

Landon broke off and shook his head, desperate to will away the tears that had lain dormant for years, well aware they had nowhere else to go.

Fender took it head on, his face set in firm lines. No sympathy. And none of the goddamned pity most couldn't have hid if they'd tried.

Just support. And the endless reassurance that Fender had his back, no matter what.

"She asked what, L?"

"She fucking asked me if I knew who she was."

Thirteen.

Daphne juggled her oversized tote bag, a box of donuts, and two venti Starbucks drinks-one full of syrup and whipped cream-and marched her offering into the tech bullpen. Katie was at her desk, a perpetual early riser that normally made Daphne want to punch her in her cheery face, but at the moment she couldn't complain.

"I come bearing gifts."

Katie's eyes widened, the Beats on her ears already coming off in a rush. "Wow, what is this?"

"Penance for my usual thoughts about wanting to mess up your pretty face."

"Huh?" Katie already had the donut box open, her hands on one of Dunkin's finest cream-filled.

"Your early morning nature usually just manages to annoy me, but I find myself in dire need of your help, and I'm rather grateful you get up and in here at an ungodly hour."

"Curse of an agile mind."

"And a sugar addiction," Daphne leaned forward and popped a quick kiss on the top of her friend's head, "but who's to quibble?"

"What's up?"

Daphne pulled the servers out of her bag and laid them down on the desk, still intact in their evidence bags. "I already hit evidence with my first box of donuts and logged these in. Now they're moving to you."

"For what?" Katie spoke around a mouthful of donut before her gaze widened. She swallowed and reached for her coffee. "Your smash and grab. From the other day. How'd you get your hands on these?"

"Seems like the bad guys decided to return the spoils."

"Seriously?"

"Yep."

Daphne walked her through the past few days, including the addition of Gretchen Reynolds's calling card to the mix, before reaching for a donut of her own.

"This has been odd from the start. It gnawed on me after you told me, so at least now it makes a bit more sense. Still doesn't explain why someone's setting that Reynolds woman up."

Daphne considered the formal statement she'd taken from Louisa Mills before leaving Landon's office the day before. The combination of vicious attacks via e-mail and threats to go public with Louisa's past indiscretion smacked of a serious degree of instability on Gretchen's part. Even if the woman wasn't entirely nuts, she was obviously a deeply unhappy person to be carrying around that level of anger for so long. "Maybe she deserves it."

"Or maybe she thought she had an ally in whatever she was cooking up and got the tables turned on her."

"Do you feel bad for her?"

"Bad enough not to go after her? Not at all. Bad that someone would spend a quarter century mad and vindictive? Hell yeah."

"It's a mad world."

"And gets madder every day. Took me about three weeks on the beat to figure that one out." Katie reached for another donut. "That's why I love sugar so much. It's always there for me and never wants to make me sad."

"You're a nut."

"Speaking of nuts, I hear you've been making googly eyes at Landon McGee."

After their tense moments the day before, when she questioned his mother and departed with his property, she wasn't sure she could still consider their relationship full of googly eyes, but she opted to keep that to herself.

"And how would you know that?"

"My sister was one of the couples at the beer tasting Friday night. Said you and Landon looked mighty chummy."

"We were wearing the equivalent of hazmat suits. How googly can a person be in a hazmat suit?"

"Deflect all you want, but Tracy said you two looked mighty comfortable with each other."

Daphne tried to remember all the couples there-and how she could have missed Katie's sister-but came up blank. "Why didn't she introduce herself?"

"Trace has been busy making some eyes of her own with Luis Ruiz from over in the DA's office."

The moment Katie said Luis' name, the pieces clicked. "That's Tracy? I thought she was a blonde who lived upstate."

"She was both. Came back about six months ago after she caught my ex-brother-in-law in bed with the maid. She dyed her hair back to its natural color and claimed she'd sworn off men."

"She's cute. So's he, as a matter of fact."

"You can get to know her better; one of your brothers invited them to your mother's Fourth of July bash."

"You coming?"

"Does Landon have a brother?"

"He's got two, as a matter of fact. One's spoken for, but I can invite the other if he's around."

"Then count me in. And in the event he doesn't show, I can console myself with your mother's zeppole."

"Nothing screams the Fourth of July like a heaping pile of fried dough."

Katie reached for one more donut and waved it in the air. "God bless America."

With Katie's promise of a quick return on the server data and a few more random pieces of neighborhood gossip, Daphne headed back to her desk.

And ran smack into Giavanna Rossi, her delicate ass perched on the edge of Daphne's rolling chair.

"Mom!"

Daphne put her coffee cup down and walked around the desk. Her mother stood and pulled her close, her nose practically twitching when she came out of the hug. "Did you have a donut?"

"I brought them in for some team members. I might have snuck one."

"Your figure, Daphne." Her mother shook her head. "Donuts are for children. Men don't appreciate a woman who eats them."

This argument took different forms whether the offending food was pizza, a second helping of pasta, or any manner of dessert other than fruit. For a woman who made all those things, she was damn stingy when it came to the females of the Rossi clan consuming them. Since Daphne wasn't in the mood to rehash the discussion-especially since she could still feel the imprint of Landon's very appreciative hands all over her skin-Daphne simply nodded and took the seat on the opposite side of her desk.

"To what do I owe your lovely visit?"

"You haven't called me back about the party."

"I texted you three times yesterday. I confirmed I'm bringing the two extra coolers I have, a third one from Jasmine, and that I've got the pretzels, Jell-O, and sparklers covered."

"You didn't call."

Daphne picked up her coffee cup and eyed her mother over the rim. "You going to add a long-suffering sniff to that, too?"

"I'm not that bad."

"We'll choose to disagree on that. What I really want to understand is why you're so bent out of shape. I saw you last weekend, and I talked to you a few times last week."

"Before you started seeing that boy."

Ahhh, Daphne thought. There it is.

"I stopped dating boys in junior high."

"You know what I mean."

"If you mean Landon McGee, then yes, I'm seeing someone." Daphne remembered her conversation with Landon earlier in the week and figured it would go a long way toward softening her mother up. "Oh, and he likes your meatballs, by the way."

Her mother did soften ever so slightly, but Daphne wasn't sure if it was due to the confirmation of the news she was seeing someone, or that the man had the good sense to like Giavanna's cooking. Either way, she eased up a fraction even as she remained perched on the edge of the chair with her back ramrod straight. "Are you bringing him to the party?"

"I was planning on it, assuming he can come."

"Why can't he come?"

"He has a family, too. They may have plans. We've only been going out for a few days."

"Cade says you're handling his case."

A wholly irrational urge to unholster her weapon and hunt down her brother on the other side of the precinct took over, but Daphne refused to let any of it show. First the stupid ass made Jasmine cry, and now he was causing trouble with their mother.

He was going down.

In the meantime, she had to get her mother off her back. "That's how Landon and I met, yes."

"And it's not unethical?"

"To date the man? Of course not."

"Oh." Her mother opened her mouth and then closed it again.

"What is it?"

"Nothing."

"Come on, Mom. Out with it."

"I know you're going for the task force. You mustn't make anyone think you're not qualified."

The urge to bang her head on her desk-repeatedly and with as much force as she could muster-filled her up. Daphne had spent years battling her mother about her job and now, on some whim of Giavanna Rossi's, she suddenly needed to focus on her career? Where was that support since she'd joined the force?

"What's with you today?"

"I think you've spent all this time focusing on your career. It'd be a shame to stop now."

"Yes, that would be a shame."