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Vivian Maddox drummed her gray-blue nails, annoyance creasing her forehead. She crossed her arms as she recalibrated her approach. No matter what angle she tried, Wes was a firm no fucking way.

“We’ve talked about this, and I already took her on as a client.”

“That doesn’t mean I have to work with her. We both know that’s a horrible idea.”

“Bailey Cosgrove needs your help.”

“No, she doesn’t. Not from me. Hell, Erick Cosgrove has a restraining order against me.”

“This has nothing to do with that.”

“Fine. I don’t want to see her.” In the back of his mind, Bailey wasn’t to blame for losing almost everything. But she was the tipping point. The source and start of every problem that had devastated his life. He would’ve confronted her about it, but her life had been devastated too. She had it worse than him, though whose life sucked more wasn’t a competition. Then he’d never followed up after her husband had died in an accident. What the hell was he supposed to say? They were both single. Broken and alone.

“Bailey Cosgrove is the reason you’re here. Seems like everything worked out the way it should. She’s asked for you to help her on one of her investigations. It’ll be interesting. Low effort.”

Low effort was code for a cakewalk assignment, which seemed to be Vivian’s favorite for Wes after he was shot last year. Rehab and physical therapy had been taxing, to say the least. He’d struggled with what his life was supposed to look like and what he wanted for the future. There had been a time when working at the FBI and marrying his ex-fiancée was what he wanted most. Since then… he wanted nothing. Not a family. Not a woman. Nothing but his solitary life. Maybe the gunshot wounds were supposed to be a wake-up call, or maybe he wasn’t supposed to have woken up at all.

Vivian softened her approach. “Your ego was bruised. I get it. I swear. The tougher the guy, the easier his feelings—”

“Viv, really…” Wes pushed his hand through his dark hair. “I’m not the guy you want on this. There are better people to assign to her.” However, he didn’t want to do that to one of his teammates. “That is, if you trust her. Because I don’t.”

“I’ve heard her out, and I do.”

Her simple, matter-of-fact statement surprised him. “You trust her?”

“Yes, I do. Mostly because she told me how much you wouldn’t. She addressed every concern I had head-on. Not flinching. Not holding a damn thing back, even when it made her look weak or naïve. You have cold case expertise. She needs it. You worked well together before you didn’t. She needs a set of eyes on her, along with local PD.”

Wes hesitated. As much as he didn’t want to be curious, he was. “She needs help on a cold case?”

Viv nodded.

That just circled them back to exactly where he and Bailey had gone so wrong. “No.”

“You’re not even curious?”

“Not even a little, but I am getting one hell of a headache.”

Vivian hummed. “It’s important enough of a cold case that she’s willing to hire security instead of backing off.”

“Bailey doesn’t back off even when she should. Even when—” That didn’t matter. “I. Lost. My. Last. Job. Because of her.”

“And here you are. Here she is, asking for help.” Viv tapped her teeth, again weighing what she would share. There was more to the story, and he didn’t like not having all the information. “If you don’t trust her, then trust me.”

Wes dropped his head back and stared at the high ceiling of the restored Victorian mansion they’d converted into their office. He scrubbed his face and leveled a hard stare at Viv. “Do Cosgroves always get their way?”

“She’s not like the rest of them.”

“It’s all one family.” He held Vivian’s return glare until he shook his head. “Fine. Give me a phone number.”

“I’ll do you one better and give you an address. Be there this afternoon.”

He faltered, and the headache intensified. “Today? In person?”

“How would you get down to the nitty-gritty if not in person?”

“Zoom. Teams. Snap. Slack. Via text message. Carrier pigeon. Or maybe not at all because this is a bad idea.”

Vivian leaned back in her chair, crossed one leg over the other, and grinned as though she found his aggravation amusing.