CHAPTER 5

C arina stared at the brief on her computer and fixed a typo. She stared at it again and then closed her eyes. She'd been at it all day and was exhausted. Truthfully, she'd been exhausted for a long time now and needed a vacation. As an assistant district attorney for the county, she shouldn't be working this hard, but she was planning a run to lose the assistant part of her title once the current district attorney announced he was retiring and not running again. At forty years old, she would be not only the first female DA but also the youngest, and that just sounded so very good to her that the vacation would have to wait.

With the DA on his way out, he'd started to spend less and less time doing his job and expected his top assistants to pick up the slack, but he'd also all but publicly named Carina as his successor, and she knew that that endorsement would be essential to her chances of winning the race when there would be at least one other possible candidate that would give her a run for her money. Her main competitor had been with the office ten years longer than she had, and he had a lower close rate than she did, but he was also more of a politician than an attorney, so that would certainly give him a leg up in the race. She was the better lawyer, though, so while it was very much a political job, the DA role was also still about the law, and that was where she stood apart from the rest of the competition.

Carina had had three job offers out of her prominent law school. Two were with massive firms in major cities. One was with a smaller firm, but she would've made partner faster there. Instead, she'd opted to join the DA's office, and she hadn't ever looked back. Her job was an important one, and she took it very seriously. Paperwork was her least favorite part of the job, though, and her eyes were tired of staring at her screen. Her body was ready to stand up and walk into a courtroom to give an opening statement. That was where she thrived. She could make deals and take pleas, but she loved the trials. There was just something about outarguing another attorney and convincing a judge or a jury of her argument that got her blood running. She was picturing doing just that in her current trial when her desk phone rang, bringing her out of her zoned-out state.

"Jury's in," her paralegal said when Carina answered the phone.

"On my way," she replied and hung up.

She stood and reached for her jacket, which had been hanging on the coatrack behind her desk, before she put it on and buttoned the single button. Grabbing her bag, she left her office and headed to court. This was exactly what she'd needed: a break from writing and reviewing briefs and motions and an actual end to the case she'd been working on for well over a year. Of course, this wouldn't really be the end. Even if she'd won this case, the defendant's attorneys would still file endless appeals that she'd have to deal with at some point, but for today, that wouldn't matter.

She was pretty sure she had at least eleven of the jurors ready to vote guilty, but there was one woman who seemed to require more convincing throughout the trial, and Carina wasn't sure she'd gotten there in the end. Arriving at the courtroom not long after the call, she spied the defendant sitting at his table, conferring with his lawyer. They looked nervous, which made Carina smile, but only on the inside. She didn't relish taking someone's freedom away like some prosecutors, but when a person broke the law, and she could prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, she'd take the win and enjoy it.

One of her favorite parts of winning a case like this one was what she did after the verdict came in. When she lost, her defeated mind only wanted to be at home with a glass of red and in a hot bath. When she won, though, her body carried her to the local bar. Not the local lawyer bar by the courthouse, as she tried not to mix business with pleasure, but the local bar that was three blocks away and had the hot owner who didn't mind sex in her office while the crowd right outside it listened to the band playing cover songs.

She and Jessa had an arrangement that worked well for Carina. It had stopped when Carina had started seriously dating Tinley, but after the two of them had broken up, Carina had stopped by the bar after her first win in court, and they'd started things back up again. The sex was good, not outstanding, but it was the arrangement that she really got off on. She'd get a victory in the courtroom, go home, and change into her tight jeans, short heels, and her worn leather jacket with a button-down under it. She'd stroll into the bar and sit at a booth after ordering a glass of wine, and she'd wait. Jessa would always walk out with a case of beer, a bottle of liquor, or something else in her hand for the bar, and when she'd look up and see Carina, she'd give her the nod. Office door slammed closed. Lock twisted into place. Hands tearing at buttons. Zippers being lowered. Fingers stroking. Hips thrusting… Just thinking about it had Carina ready for it, but she still had to win her case, so she sat at her table and placed her bag in front of herself.

The next part was a routine she was incredibly familiar with. The bailiff walked in and told them to rise. The judge entered and told them to sit. He'd bring in the jury and ask if they'd reached a verdict. They'd say yes, in this case, and he'd ask the bailiff to bring it to him. Then, he'd read it to himself before he'd ask the bailiff to read it out loud to the court. If the attorneys asked, the judge would poll the jury. If the defendant was found guilty, the judge would remand him and set a sentencing date. If the defendant was found not guilty, that would be the end of it, and they'd go home.

"On count one, murder in the second degree, the jury finds Peter Walker guilty," the bailiff read from the piece of paper.

Carina nodded once and waited.

The bailiff read out the additional two counts, of which the defendant was also found guilty, and that was it. The judge set their sentencing date, and the now-convicted man was taken away by the officers in the court.

Carina sighed, mentally preparing herself for the evening she'd planned. She couldn't wait to change out of her court clothes and into that jacket, order her usual glass of wine, and get the nod from Jessa. Then, after they had sex, she'd go home and try to get some rest. The orgasm would help with that, and tomorrow, she would be back at another case.

Having the largest caseload of all the ADAs meant she was also the busiest. She didn't mind, but she'd love to be able to pick her cases, which she'd be able to do as the DA. Since DAs rarely tried cases themselves, Carina would be able to choose the biggest or most important ones or even the ones that she cared about the most and still get some courtroom time while also advancing her career, so that gave her some extra motivation for the job.

Returning to her office to pack up for the night, she was both happy and worried when she saw Dylan Easton standing outside her door, leaning back against it, while Dylan's wife sat on the bench opposite her, typing away on her laptop.

"Ada, can't stop for the night, huh?" Carina asked.

"We're supposed to be at dinner, but this one needed to talk to you, so I'm just getting in some extra work." Ada pointed to Dylan, who shook her head at her slightly.

"Hey, Carina," Dylan spoke then.

"Lieutenant, to what do I owe this little drop-by?"

"Want to join us for dinner?" Dylan asked.

"Dinner with you and a clearly annoyed Ada? I don't know…"

"Hey, I'm not annoyed," Ada argued. "Just hungry."

"Need I remind you that I had to pick you up here because you had a child to advocate for in court?" Dylan teased her wife.

"And I did that. Now, I'm starving," Ada retorted.

Carina just laughed at the whole exchange. She didn't understand their relationship, but these two were somehow perfect for each other and had been together for quite a while now. Carina had met Dylan through one of the cold cases she'd prosecuted. Dylan had solved it, too, like she'd solved so many others. The detective just had a knack for looking at old evidence and finding meaning in it somehow.

"Anyway, we're going for pizza. Want to join?" Dylan asked her.

"Is this just a friendly invitation or because you need something?" Carina asked back and opened her office door.

"The latter," Ada replied for Dylan.

"It's not what I need. It's more that I might have gotten a new case dropped on your desk, so I wanted to buy you pizza to help ease the burden."

"I'm full up, Dylan. Sorry. You'll have to take your case elsewhere."

"It wasn't my call; it was your boss's," Dylan explained as they walked into Carina's office. " My boss talked to him, and now, it's on your plate. So, pizza?"

Dylan and Ada were two people Carina considered friends. She'd worked with Dylan a few times now since that first case, and they'd gone to a few work parties as well. The woman was serious about her work, even more so than the other cops Carina had worked with. And Ada was a child advocate attorney, which was an important job to her. The two of them made an interesting and usually entertaining couple to be around. When Carina had been with Tinley, they hadn't spent much time together. Tinley was younger than all of them, despite the fact that Ada was actually ten years younger than Dylan, and Tinley hadn't liked Carina's older friends. Now that that was over, though, Carina could get back to spending time with the people she liked and let Tinley do the same.

"I have plans, actually," she replied after moving behind her desk.

"The bar owner," Ada guessed as she walked into the office and closed the door behind all of them. "You won your case, didn't you?"

"I did," Carina said with a lifted eyebrow. "I got that last juror I thought I hadn't won over."

"I bet she's gay and thinks you're hot, not that you actually won your argument," Ada teased.

"Well, I hope not. She just sent a man to jail."

"Can you put the bar owner on hold for, like, an hour?" Dylan asked.

"She gets sex from that bar owner, babe. I don't think she's going to choose pizza with us over sex with hot Jessa."

"How do you know Jessa is hot?" Dylan asked.

"I went with Carina that one time, remember?"

"And you saw her?"

"Yes. They have a whole ritual thing." Ada motioned with her hand for Carina to explain better. "It's weird, but it's whatever."

"It's not really a ritual. She just sees me and gives me a nod, indicating that she's… ready for me, and we go back to her office."

"We've had office sex. There's just something about it that–"

"Ada!"

"What?" Ada said. "Remember our–"

"A-n-y-w-a-y," Dylan said, lengthening the word and shaking her head at her wife. "It's an interesting case."

"Can you tell me about it tomorrow? Or can I hear all about it from that boss I'm trying to replace? I need to get home to change and leave before Tinley gets home."

"How much longer is she going to be living with you?" Ada asked. "You broke up."

"I know… But we moved in together, so she needs to find an apartment first. It's just taking a little longer than I thought."

"Yeah, three months too long," Ada noted.

"She'll get home from work in a couple of hours, and she'll wonder where I'm going. It'll be a big deal, and I don't want to have to worry about that tonight. I just want my hot victory sex from Jessa and a good night's sleep."

"Next to the guest room where you're letting your ex-girlfriend sleep," Ada pointed out.

"It's the Nick May case," Dylan blurted out. "We've made an arrest."

"Nick May? That murder you've been working for years?" Carina asked.

"Yes. We found his wife, Marin. She's being extradited from Florida, and you've just been assigned her case."

"Domestic dispute or something, right?" Carina asked, trying to refresh her memory about the case Dylan had told her about before over dinner.

"Yes. Two domestic violence complaints by her before the murder that didn't go anywhere. Fingerprints and DNA found, but we couldn't match the DNA for sure until now."

"You have her DNA?" Carina asked.

"Yes. Long story."

"Tell her," Ada suggested. "It's an interesting one."

Dylan sat down and leaned forward in her chair.

"She has a twin sister whom she doesn't know about. They're identical."

" Who does?"

"Marin May. Her sister's name is Kieran Hart. Seems on the up and up. She put her DNA into one of those websites, and I was trying for a familial match. So, I found her, thinking she was Marin on the run, but she's not. She was adopted. They found her and Marin separately in an alley by a church."

"Safe-haven baby?"

"Sounds like. Anyway, one was adopted. The other grew up in the system. We got Kieran's DNA first, which matches her identical twin, so we now have Marin's, too."

"But she lived there. You'd have her DNA all over that house. That won't do anything for the case," Carina argued.

"We also have it on the murder weapon, so she pulled the trigger, at least, because there was skin found where it would've grabbed someone who's inexperienced at firing a gun. Plus, we have it on the board. It's touch DNA, which isn't great, I know, but the wood didn't burn up in the fire, and that was used to–"

"Hit him, right?"

"Pieces of wood were found in the back of his head, yeah," Dylan replied.

"Okay. Well, I know what the defense attorney would say. We've got twins with the same DNA. The other one could've done it to help her sister escape. Plus, skin on the trigger doesn't mean she pulled it on him . She could've just as easily been at a shooting range or practicing with the gun unloaded."

"The twins didn't know the other existed. Technically, Marin still doesn't know about Kieran, but Kieran only just found out. And I think you can handle the whole gun thing. You're very good at your job."

"Thank you," Carina replied, not shying away from the compliment, regardless of the fact that it was only used to sweeten her taking the case. "And you've met with her?"

"Yes. And I believe her, too," Dylan shared. "I've got nothing showing up anywhere that says they knew of each other. I also talked to Kieran again just yesterday and asked if I could review her financials. Not only did she volunteer without hesitation, but there was nothing; no indication that she might have helped Marin financially. Besides, we only have Marin's prints in the house, so while twins have the same DNA, their prints are still different."

"But since most of the house burned down in the fire, I can already see the defense suggesting that this Kieran's prints could've been there; they just happened to burn, or she wore gloves for the crime."

"Well, like I said, you're an amazing attorney, so I'm sure you could prove to them that that wasn't the case," Dylan replied. "You could even put her on the stand; get her alibi out there."

"For eight years ago?" Carina asked. "Isn't that when this happened? I doubt she remembers where she was or what she was doing. We'll just have to see, I guess. This is a weird one, huh?"

"You can say that," Dylan agreed. "I feel like Kieran's world just turned upside down."

"Dylan invited her to dinner, too," Ada said.

"You did?"

"Not tonight. The other day at the diner. I was waiting for Ada, and I called Kieran and left a message. It was more if she needed to talk to someone. Not that I understand what she's going through, exactly… but her sister was missing, technically. I happen to know a thing or two about that. And we'd just found her."

"And you know about that , too," Ada added seriously.

Carina looked back and forth between them and asked, "Any update on the suspect in Noah's disappearance?"

"We're trying to get his alibi without him knowing. It's proving to be difficult."

"It was a long time ago…" Carina supplied.

"But Dylan thinks it's him," Ada shared. "And, if it is, that would mean that our family would get closure."

"So, it's worth it," Dylan replied.

Ada placed her hand on Dylan's shoulder, and Dylan covered it with her own.

"I want to meet her," Carina said then, changing the subject.

"She'll be in county," Dylan told her.

"No, the sister. This Kieran. I want to meet with her."

"She's been cooperating, so I don't think that will be a problem," Dylan replied.

"Great. Glad you two have that all worked out. Can we go to dinner now?" Ada asked. "I'm still starving."

"Yes, babe," Dylan said, standing up. "Carina?"

Carina had been wired since hearing her verdict, so, for a split second, she did think of Jessa, who wouldn't even be expecting her or anything, but then, she nodded to Dylan and Ada, deciding to just use her vibrator later instead. She could use a meal with friends, and she wanted to learn more about this strange case involving twins who didn't know they were twins, a murdered husband, and complications with it being eight years ago.

"Dinner," she replied. "Let's go. You're buying. I am slammed and was actually considering a vacation before you told me this. Now, I have a new case to worry about."

"Oh, please," Ada began. "Vacation, my ass. At most, you were thinking about taking a long weekend at a nice hotel less than thirty miles away just in case you needed to get back. You never take real vacations."

"True," she admitted.

"Would you have invited hot Jessa, though?" Ada teased.

"What Jessa and I have exists only between the four walls of that bar," Carina replied. "Now, I'm getting a whole pizza to myself, and Dylan is buying a pitcher of beer, too."

Dylan laughed and took Ada's hand.