His smile dazzled her, giving her the same feeling she got when she looked directly at the sun. He took her hand and kissed the back of it. “I only have one request if we’re really going to give this a try.”

  “What’s that?” she asked, sounding as breathless as she felt.

  “I want you to make peace with your son.”

  * * *

  Detective Gigi Dominguez had last worn her uniform at Skip Holland’s funeral. One of the best parts of being a detective was that she could wear her own clothes. She’d found the uniform tight and restricting and didn’t miss her days in Patrol when she’d had to wear it every day. She stood before the mirror in Cam’s bedroom and took a critical look to make sure everything was where it belonged.

  A low whistle had her spinning around to find Cameron standing in the doorway, with his arms crossed and gaze fixed on her. “Hot as fuck.”

  “Haha, sure. I’ve gotten flabby lately. I need to get back to the gym. The pants barely fit.”

  In the mirror, she watched him come across the room until he stood behind her, hands on her ass. “Don’t say mean things about my favorite sexy cop. It annoys me.”

  She smiled at him in the mirror.

  “Sexiest police officer in the history of sexy police officers.”

  “If you say so.”

  “I say so, and I’ve seen a lot of police officers. You’ve got them all beat.”

  “Thank you for the confidence boost.”

  He hugged her from behind. “You don’t need me to boost your confidence. You’re fine all on your own. You’ll go in there today and knock their socks off with your poise and your certainty that you did everything you could to avoid having to use deadly force. If you focus on what you know to be true, you’ll get through this.”

  Gigi leaned into his embrace, soaking up the love in every word he said to her. “You know what the best news is?”

  “What’s that?”

  “No matter how this goes today, I get to come home to you and this and us.”

  “As much as I love what we have, I don’t want to hear anything other than everything is fine, and you’re cleared to go back to work.”

  She was fully aware that their relationship was riding on this hearing as much as her career was. Cameron would never be able to live with himself if she lost her career because of his ex-girlfriend.

  Gigi turned to face him, placing her hands on his chest. “I was reading the report Gonzo sent on the Fortier case. It’s very similar to what happened with Jaycee. Gordon Reilly told Tori Stevens he wanted to see other people in college, but she couldn’t accept that. Gonzo is making a murder-for-hire case against Tori and the guy who did the killing. Just like you, Gordon had the right to tell Tori that he wanted something different. It was her choice to refuse to accept that. Now Rachel Fortier is dead, and Tori will spend most of her life in prison. What a waste it all is.”

  “It’s funny that I’ve been working on that case and didn’t make the connection to the similarities in our situation. But you’re right.”

  “You did nothing wrong, and neither did Gordon Reilly or me with Ezra.” Her longtime boyfriend had left her gravely injured after she’d told him she wanted to end their relationship. “We’re all allowed to say when something isn’t working for us. We’re allowed to change our minds, to fall out of love, to take a different path.”

  “You’re so fucking strong,” Cameron whispered as he kissed her. “I love you, and I’m so, so proud of you.”

  “That means everything to me. I’ve got to go.”

  “I wish I could be there.”

  “I know, but it’s better if you aren’t. I need to stay focused, and you’re a terrible, wonderful distraction.”

  His grin didn’t quite reach his eyes the way it had before Jaycee attacked her, but she hoped it would again before too much longer. “Text me the second you get out of there.”

  “I will.”

  He picked up her hat and followed her out of the bedroom and down the stairs.

  They took their own cars to HQ and walked in together.

  Outside the morgue, Cam stopped her with a hand to her arm. “Love you,” he whispered.

  “Love you, too. Try not to worry.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Sure, no problem.”

  “I’ve got this.”

  “Don’t let Offenbach throw you off your game. He blames Sam for his problems, but he knows it was his own fault that he got in trouble at home and at work.”

  “I can handle him.” She stole a quick kiss. “Go to work.”

  He walked away, but he glanced over his shoulder twice before he disappeared around a corner.

  “It’s hard for him,” Lindsey McNamara said.

  Gigi hadn’t seen her there. “It’s excruciating. He blames himself.”

  “Which is too bad.”

  “I know,” Gigi said with a sigh.

  “I’ve worked with a lot of great women on this job. You’re one of them. I wrote a letter to the IAB board to tell them that. I hope it helps.”

  A huge lump formed in her throat. “Thank you, Doc. That means the world to me.”

  “You did what any of us would’ve done under the circumstances. You defended yourself, and you survived. Stay strong.”

  “I will. Thanks again.”

  “My pleasure. I’m rooting for you to be back where you belong very soon.”

  “From your lips to God’s ears.”

  Gigi left the kind medical examiner and headed upstairs to the IAB hearing room. “You must be Andy,” she said to the attorney who stood when he saw her coming. She’d looked him up online so she’d recognize him.

  He shook her hand. “Good to meet you in person.”

  “Thank you for being here.”

  “Of course.”

  They’d spoken several times on the phone and were ready to proceed, so they sat together to wait.

  Captain Malone arrived a few minutes later and gave her a warm, reassuring smile.

  Gigi was thankful to have him as her departmental advocate.

  Twenty very long minutes later, Deputy Chief McBride came out of the room and gestured for Gigi to come in. She squeezed Gigi’s arm, which helped to quell her nerves. Jeannie was a friend and an ally in this situation. Gigi had feared that Jeannie would be forced to recuse herself because of her encounter with Jaycee’s mother, but the two incidents were being handled separately. Also, Jeannie hadn’t been the one to shoot Jaycee’s mother. Fairfax County SWAT detectives had done that.

  Thinking about such things helped Gigi to stay cool as she entered the room with Andy and sat in front of the three-person panel.

  Officer Dylan Offenbach, who’d been busted from sergeant to Patrol after his transgressions, glared at her with barely contained contempt. He would be a problem, but she’d known that going in.

  Jeannie began the proceedings. “We’re here today to review the events of March sixth.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Gigi listened to Jeannie’s recitation of the events from the report Gigi had written, summarizing everything that’d happened from the second she returned from checking her mail to find Jaycee in her house. Much of it was hard to hear, especially details of the sexual assault. She kept her gaze down and focused on breathing as Jeannie got to the part where Gigi had backed up to her bedside table where her service weapon was kept, and with her hand behind her back, she’d withdrawn the weapon from the drawer and pointed it at Jaycee.

  The minutes that’d followed were a blur as the two women had engaged in an epic struggle that had ended when Gigi shot Jaycee in the chest. In all the confusion, Gigi vividly recalled the moment she realized she wasn’t going to die.

  Captain Malone was next. “Detective Dominguez is one of the finest officers I’ve ever worked with or supervised. Her annual reviews have been stellar from both Patrol and Homicide. I have witnessed her struggle over what she had to do to save herself from Ms. Patrick’s violent attack. The best officers are the ones who care so much that they punish themselves for doing what needed to be done. Detective Dominguez should be fully exonerated in this matter and returned to her position as soon as possible. Thank you.”

  “Thank you, Captain Malone,” Captain Andrews said. “And thank you for your attention to this matter, Detective Dominguez. I’d like to ask if you immediately recognized Ms. Patrick when you saw her in your home.”

  “Yes, sir. I’d seen her during an earlier altercation.”

  “Can you please describe that altercation?” Andrews asked.

  “We were coming home to Cameron’s place. She was on the stairs waiting for us. We’d gotten a protective order against her after she slashed Cameron’s tires and made racially charged comments about me. She was in violation of the order, which we told her. Cameron told me to go inside so he could talk to her. I told her I was going to call Dispatch. I held off to give him a minute to deal with her, but I listened to what they said. I heard her tell him she was pregnant, and he said that wasn’t true. He later told me it was another trick, another attempt to keep him tied to her.”

  “How did he know she wasn’t pregnant?”

  “He said it couldn’t have been his because he hadn’t been with her in months by then, and she’d be showing if she was pregnant with his kid. She threatened him, said he’d never see the kid, and he told her that if she was pregnant with triplets, that wouldn’t matter to him. It was over between them. She said she couldn’t believe he wanted me and not her. He said he loved me more than anything. That was…” She glanced up at the panel with a small smile. “That was the first time he said he loved me. Later, he said he hated that she was involved in that moment, but I didn’t care. They were the best words I’d ever heard because I love him, too.”

  “Was Detective Green successful in convincing her to leave?” Andrews asked.

  She wanted to ask why he hadn’t read the reports. Maybe he had and he wanted to hear it from her. “We thought so, until a short time later when a brick came through the window and barely missed hitting us.”

  “I noticed in the reports that Ms. Patrick said she’d planned to marry Detective Green,” Offenbach said, “but he was unaware of that. Is that true?”

  “That’s what Detective Green reported to me and others. He said they never once discussed marriage.”

  “So then how would she have gotten the idea that they were getting married?”

  Gigi stared at him, uncertain of how she should answer that.

  “I object to that question,” Andy said. “There is no way Detective Dominguez could know what Jaycee Patrick thought or when she thought it.”

  “I agree,” Jeannie said. “You can ask about what Detective Dominguez witnessed or heard, but you can’t ask her what Jaycee Patrick was thinking or feeling.”

  “Very well,” Offenbach said with a hard look for Gigi. “Were you seeing Detective Green while he was still dating Jaycee Patrick?”

  “No, I wasn’t. He’d ended his relationship with her before ours began.”

  “And you know that for certain?”

  “I do.”

  “Is there a point to this line of questioning, Officer Offenbach?” Andy asked.

  Gigi wanted to kiss him on the lips for asking the question she was thinking.

  “I’m just trying to determine Ms. Patrick’s motivation for confronting the detective.”

  “As the reports indicate,” Gigi said, “her motivation was to get Detective Green to return to their relationship, after he’d told her that wasn’t going to happen.”

  “Because of you,” Offenbach said.

  “No, because of him. He would tell you he’d realized it was over with her quite a while before he actually ended it.”

  “We’ll have him come in to confirm the time line,” Offenbach said.

  “I fail to see how that’s relevant to the matter before this board,” Andy said. “Whatever occurred between Detective Green and his ex-girlfriend certainly had no bearing on my client or the incident at her home, which is why we’re here. The facts of that incident are irrefutable. Jaycee Patrick entered Detective Dominguez’s home uninvited, threatened her, assaulted her and forced Detective Dominguez to defend herself in order to save her own life. Those are the facts in question here. What occurred—or didn’t occur—between Detective Green and Jaycee Patrick prior to those events is irrelevant.”

  Gigi wanted to stand up and cheer for her on-point attorney.

  “I’d like to know more about why you felt the need to use your weapon, Detective Dominguez,” Captain Andrews said.

  “As the situation in my bedroom evolved, Ms. Patrick became somewhat unhinged. That’s the best word I can use to describe her demeanor. She dragged me upstairs, saying she wanted to see the place where I fucked her boyfriend—and those were her words, not mine. After she cut my clothes off me with a large knife, she pushed her fingers into me, saying she wanted to understand what I have that she doesn’t. She… she said she wanted to know if my pussy was tighter than hers.”

  Gigi trembled as she recited the facts, feeling as if she were telling a story that’d happened to someone else. “Things went downhill from there. She got increasingly physical with me, swinging the knife around as she came toward me. I didn’t think. I just went into survival mode by backing up to the table that housed my weapon.” Her voice caught on a sob. “The last thing I wanted to do was kill her, but it was very clear to me that she would have no problem killing me.”

  “Thank you for your articulate recitation of the facts, Detective Dominguez,” Jeannie said.

  Gigi appreciated her kindness, knowing Jeannie had once been abducted and sexually assaulted on the job, so she understood better than most people would how difficult it was to talk about the assault, especially in a forum such as this.

  “Are there any other questions for Detective Dominguez?”

  “Just one,” Offenbach said. “Detective, if you had this incident to do over with the benefit of hindsight, would you have done anything differently?”

  Gigi glanced at Andy, whose expression was unreadable. “I… I’ve gone over it and over it a million times in my mind since that day, always looking for a way that this could’ve ended differently than it did, but I’ve never been able to see it unfold any other way. While I can’t know for sure, it seemed to me that Ms. Patrick was very determined to kill me. If she couldn’t have Cameron, then I wasn’t going to have him either.”

  “As you mentioned earlier, it’s not possible to know what Ms. Patrick was thinking,” Offenbach said.

  “No, it wasn’t,” Gigi conceded, “but I saw the way she was looking at me, as if she hated me more than anyone on earth and that it would be nothing to her to kill me. While I’d give anything for an outcome that didn’t require me to fire my weapon or for her to be dead, I’m not sorry that I did what I had to do to survive. I love my life, and I’m thankful to still be here.” She paused before she added, “I also want to say that I love my job and the people I work with. It makes me very sad to think about not being able to do the job I love anymore. If it comes to that, I’ll be okay because I know in my heart that there was nothing else I could’ve done that day. That’s all I wanted to say.”

  “Thank you, Detective Dominguez, for your candor and your courage in recounting such a traumatic event,” Jeannie said. “We’ll discuss this among ourselves and let you know our decision in the next few days. Thank you for coming in.”

  “Thank you for your time,” Gigi said.

  As she stood, her legs felt weak and wobbly.

  “That went as well as we could’ve hoped,” Andy said. “I think it’s going to be all right.”

  She nodded to acknowledge Andy, but the lump in her throat made it impossible to speak. Whatever happened next was out of her hands.

  * * *

  Cameron was going slowly mad waiting to hear something from Gigi. It’d been two hours since they’d arrived at HQ. Surely, she must be done by now.

  His desk phone rang with a call from an extension he didn’t recognize. “Detective Green.”

  “Hey, it’s Jeannie. The IAB panel has some questions for you. We wondered if you might come up to meet with us.”

  “When?”

  “Now.”

  “Do I need representation?”

  “Captain Malone and the attorney who represented Gigi have agreed to stay.”

  “I’ll be right there.” Cameron got up and went to Sam’s office to check in with Gonzo. “IAB asked me to come up to answer some questions as part of Gigi’s inquiry.”

  “Oh jeez. Do you have an attorney?”

  “Andy stayed. Do you think I’ll need him?”

  “It never hurts to have him there. Good luck.”

  “Thanks.”

  This entire situation was beyond belief to Cameron. He’d spent his career building a reputation that was beyond reproach. The thought of his private life derailing the professional was surreal to him. He hated that the whole department—hell, the whole city—knew his personal business, that his ex-girlfriend had turned out to be a psychopath. He didn’t use that word loosely. He could think of no other way to describe Jaycee’s behavior from the minute he had kindly and gently told her that he was ending their relationship until the deadly confrontation in Gigi’s bedroom.

  What did it say about his judgment that he’d spent a year with Jaycee and never seen anything to lead him to believe she was capable of the things she’d done?

  Everyone in his life had told him that what’d happened to Gigi wasn’t his fault, but it sure as hell felt like it was.

  Cam went upstairs to the second floor, his stomach in knots as he tried to anticipate what might happen at the hearing. He hadn’t expected to be called to testify, even though Jeannie had warned him it was a possibility. He’d hoped that Gigi’s testimony, on its own, would’ve been enough to shut down any further inquiry. However, Offenbach was the ringer in the mix, as he had a grudge against their squad and was probably enjoying the opportunity to retaliate.