"So she might actually have the missing information I've been busting my ass to find?" Nick asked, sounding like he was typing something as I explained what Samantha had told me while I drove home.

"It's possible," I nodded, changing lanes and cutting off a black Jeep that was going too fast. "She didn't seem to know what's in the folders but I'm sure it has something to do with all this. Why else would he be so secretive about it and want someone else to hide the evidence?"

"Makes sense," he said. "Can you text me Samantha's address and phone number?"

I shook my head yes as if Nick could see me through the phone. "Yeah. Let me get off the highway first."

I ended up not texting him until I got home, having forgotten that I didn't know Samantha's information by heart. Lucky for me, our firm had an employee contact list just like Hampton, Burns and Hampton's. I pulled up the spreadsheet on my laptop and went down the alphabetized line until I found Samantha McHenry. I typed a quick message to Nick and double checked the number before I sent it. He sent back a simple "thanks."

I turned on the TV in my bedroom while I waited on the bathtub to fill up. The clock struck six and the local news popped on the screen. Once again, Jamie Hollis was reporting live, this time from outside the Cook County Sheriff's Department where deputies had booked Derek earlier in the day. Jamie had changed her outfit to something a little flashier and there were about fourteen lapel pins on her suit jacket.

While watching her reporting, it occurred to me that I was a fairly well-known attorney in the Chicago area, and I knew at some point, whether it was Jamie or somebody else, my name was going to be brought up by someone in the news and I wasn't looking forward to the media questioning me on if I knew about Derek's embezzlement. It wouldn't surprise me if they asked if I had any involvement.

I'd always been a pretty private person. I didn't talk much about my relationships to anyone except Monica. I liked my private life private and now I was preparing for my personal business to be scrutinized by complete strangers for the sake of television ratings. Oh joy!

I turned off the TV, already annoyed. I usually liked watching the evening news but now I wanted to avoid it. I stripped down and headed to the bathroom. Opening the door, the hot air hit me like a brick and I realized I probably shouldn't have left the heater on so long. I turned it off and slowly sank down to a comfortable spot in the tub. The water was a little hotter than I expected but it was exactly what I needed. I closed my eyes, relaxing and attempting to clear my cluttered mind.

"I like coming over to find you naked," Nick's voice startled me and I opened my eyes to see him standing in the doorway.

"You look handsome," I smiled, taking in his appearance.

He wore dark blue slacks, a grey button up, and his blue FBI jacket with a matching ball cap. His bangs hung over one of his eyes, squished under his hat.

"I think you need glasses, sweetheart," he joked and walked toward me, taking a seat on the edge of the tub.

I smacked his thigh playfully. "What are you doing here? I didn't know you were coming over."

"I finished work and I wanted to come see you."

"Did you see the news?" I asked, rolling my eyes at the thought of Derek and his publicized arrest.

"Oh yeah," he chuckled softly. "I'm glad to see the fucker in jail but it won't last long."

Nick had a point. It was only a matter of time before some big shot lawyers got Derek out of jail. I worried about what he might do. Though he'd be surveyed constantly due to it being a high-profile case, it wouldn't be the first time a criminal got out of jail and disappeared to another country or something. Until I watched a judge and jury nail Derek's coffin, I was going to keep worrying about the possibility of him getting away with everything.

I groaned. "I wonder what his dad's thinking. He's been so blind to Derek's shit all this time. I feel so bad for him."

"Yeah. Me too."

"Are you staying?" I hoped Nick planned to spend the night.

He nodded. "Yeah, if you want me to, I can. My computer is in the car. I can work from here if you don't mind me occupying your study for a little bit of after work-work. I shouldn't be long. I just have to send a couple emails to Washington."

"Go ahead."

I stared at Nick's ass as he left the bathroom. Those slacks looked extra good on him and I had a weakness for men wearing ball caps. Something about it just accentuated their good looks to me. I wondered if Nick had played baseball in high school. He looked like someone who would have.

While Nick was downstairs occupying my home office, I spent another half hour enjoying my bath. Once the water got too cool for comfort I got out. I could hear him on the phone when I opened the bathroom door to go retrieve some fresh clothes.

"Are you sure that's everything?" I heard Nick ask someone. "I want to make sure I'm not missing anything."

I slipped on some red pajama pants and a matching hoodie, pulling my hair back into a wet ponytail.

"I'll have to come by and have you write a statement," Nick told the person. "I'll pick everything up then."

I went downstairs and started fishing through the freezer for something to make for dinner. I ended up with a box of chicken picatta for two. That sounded like something Nick would like.

"Thank you, Samantha," Nick's voice came again from the other room and my ears perked up at the mention of my coworker's name. "Yeah, I'll be there in about twenty minutes."

My heart stank, hearing that Nick was about to leave. I felt like I'd begun fixing dinner for nothing and now he probably wasn't going to spend the night either. I went ahead and finished dishing up the chicken picatta and tossed its container in the trashcan. Nick entered the kitchen with his hand on his forehead, slowly pushing his hair back and looking at the floor.

"Hey," he said, looking like he didn't feel so good.

"What's wrong?"

Nick shook his head. "Nothing. I just have to go to Samantha McHenry's place and pick up those folders and get her to write me a statement about how she acquired them. I wanted to do it tomorrow but when I talked to my superior, he said Derek's attorneys might get him out of jail tonight and we don't want to give him the opportunity to go get those folders before we do."

"Oh," I said simply, fetching a bottle of wine that I'd probably end up drinking by myself.

"You made dinner?" Nick asked with a guilty voice.

"I did."

"I'm sorry," he sighed, wiping his hand over his face. "I feel really bad now. I'm sorry. Can I just try to hurry up and get back and-"

"I'll leave your plate in the microwave," I interrupted.

Nick looked like he felt awful for having to leave but I really couldn't fault him for going. I knew he didn't want to skip out on me. It wasn't like I was dating an average guy. I was dating a federal agent and I was going to have to get used to him leaving in the middle of things and not being available every time I wanted to spend time with him. I hated that but I was going to have to deal with it if I wanted to be in a relationship with him.

"I'm sorry," I said, walking over to him. "I just hate that you have to go."

"I know," he said in almost a whisper, running his fingers through my hair as I hugged him. "I won't be gone long though. I promise."

"I'm holding you to that," I pointed a finger at him.

Nick breathed a laugh. "Maybe I'll hold you to something when I get back."

"Oh, really?" I giggled and wiggled my eyebrows.

He kissed me, sliding his hands down my sides and squeezing my ass. "Really."

After Nick left, I finished eating and decided to watch TV until he got back. Thankfully, the news wasn't on. I didn't want to hear another word about Derek. Hallmark was having a night of romance movies and I settled on that. My phone started ringing on the coffee table, startling me and causing me to spill some of my drink on my pants.

"Yes?" I answered, annoyed.

"You're never going to believe this!" Monica's overly-enthusiastic voice boomed through the speaker.

I cringed at how loud her voice was and turned down the volume. "What's going on?"

"I just heard the most unbelievable shit!" she exclaimed. "I think Derek's trying to say fuck you to you with this embezzlement case."

"What do you mean?"

"I got a call from Brianna and she told me that someone told her that Veronica is going to be part of Derek's defense team."

Brianna Hollis was one of our litigation attorneys and the younger sister of Jamie Hollis, the reporter. Veronica Dashwood was a criminal defense attorney who had started working at our firm about six months ago, leaving Ross, Jordan and Flint, a firm we competed pretty intensely with.

I'd never really taken the time to get to know Veronica. She always seemed too serious and overly professional to the point of being completely unpleasant to be around. I never tried to approach her, assuming she wouldn't be the friendliest person.

Brianna and I had been friends since I'd started at the firm. She was the first person to say hi to me and show me around. We instantly became coffee break buddies and went on shopping sprees together until Monica came to work for our firm.

"What the fuck!" My jaw dropped and I muted the TV to try to comprehend what the hell was going on. "Are you sure? Was she sure? What the fuck?"

"That's what I said!" Monica yelled back. "She didn't tell me who told her. I'm not sure if she even knew the girl. She did say it was a girl. But why the hell would Veronica do that? Doesn't she know you two were together? That's kind of a stab in the back."

"I don't know," I groaned, resting my head in my free hand. "At this point, I shouldn't be surprised by anything, but I've never done a damn thing to that bitch and she does this! She has to know this pisses me off!"

"Maybe Derek's paying her a shit ton of money to work for him just to make you mad," she speculated. "I don't understand why else she would do this."

I stared at the floor until my vision began to blur. "I'm going to talk to Brianna about this."

"Call me back if you find out anything!" Monica shouted as I hung up, quickly dialing Brianna's number.

I was livid. It was a huge slap in the face for someone from my firm to be a part of my ex-fiancé's defense. Veronica had to know I'd have a problem with this, even if she'd never spoken to me. It just wasn't okay. And besides that, from what I'd heard many, many times, Veronica Dashwood was one of the most successful defense attorneys in Cook County. I despised the thought of her being good enough to get Derek off the hook. He deserved to be indicted, convicted, and sent to prison for thirty years. He should have attorneys who were terrible at their jobs.

"Hello?" Brianna's voice came on the line.

"Hey, Brianna, it's Carrie," I said, getting up from the couch. "I need to talk to you."

"Is something wrong, Carrie?"

"I just talked to Monica and she said you told her that Veronica was going to be on Derek's defense."

Brianna paused for a moment, releasing a heavy sigh before she spoke again. "I didn't want to be the one to tell you because I knew you were going to be pissed."

"Who told you?" I asked. I wanted to know who said it to begin with.

"You know my sister, Jamie?"

"Yeah."

"Her station assigned her to the story, so she's getting as much information as she can from the courthouse and the sheriff's department and whoever else," Brianna explained. "She texted me earlier and said she'd just left Hampton, Burns and Hampton and a spokesperson for the Hampton family told her that Veronica Dashwood is going to be a part of Derek's defense team. According to the spokesman, she was personally requested."

That pretty much confirmed Monica's suspicion that Derek had wanted Veronica on his team just to take a jab at me. I had Veronica's number and it was taking every bit of self-control I had to keep from calling her and telling her off. In less than ten minutes, the coworker I'd never spoken to had gone from being just another face at the office to the top of my enemies list. I wanted to beat her with one of her fancy knockoff Prada heels. Actually I wanted to throw a whole closet full of stilettos at her.

Brianna and I talked a few more minutes and I typed a quick text to Monica after we hung up, letting her know that it had been Jamie who told Brianna, to which she responded with about thirty exclamation marks and angry emojis.

I was about to give up waiting and go to bed when Nick walked through the front door with a radiant smile that almost made me forget what I'd been pissed about.

"What's got you so excited?" I asked, unable to keep from returning his grin. His smiles were contagious.

Nick pulled me into a tight one-armed hug and I realized he was holding a plastic bag full of folders. "I got the files."

"Great," I said, hugging him back. "I guess you're going to go look through all of that?"

He shook his head, still smiling. "Already did in the car. I found it."

"Found what?"

"Everything I've been looking for," he grinned.