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niggling feeling that had been pulling at him all day took another tug at his gut.
    A skel eton tattoo…a crime with no evidence…not calculated, but cold-blooded…
    “Oh my God.” Serenity’s voice wa s barely a whisper, but it gripped every ounce of his attention as if she’d stood on the desk and screamed. “That’s him. That’s the man who was in Mac’s.”
    Jason stood, rounding the corner between their adjacent desks to look over her shoulder.
    Oh shit. Shit.
    “Are you sure?” Dread knifed through his gut, and he prayed for her to recant, to be mistaken, to say anything other than—
    “Definitely . That’s him. I’m sure of it.”
    S uddenly shit didn’t begin to cover it.
    “I’m going to nee d you to sit tight while I talk to my Lieutenant,” Jason said, running off a quick printout of the mug shot on her screen. He hustled into the hallway before she could ask any questions, not breaking stride as he summoned Noah from their shared office a few doors down.
    “ We need to talk to Lieu, right now. This case just went from bad to nightmare.”
    A frown bracketed Noah’s perpetual five o’clock shadow as he followed Jason toward the glass-walled office at the end of the hall, where Lieutenant Martin was clearly on the phone. “Come on, Jay. How bad could…ho-ly shit,” Noah said, staring at the printout Jason had just flashed in his direction. “Please tell me that’s not who Serenity Gallagher just put an ID to for this assault.”
    “I could .” Oh man, he wanted to. The word no felt almost decadent in his mouth. “But it would make me a liar.”
    “You think he’s getting opportunistic now that Sands is in jail?”
    “I think the Black Skulls made a lot of money ripping people off with the smash and dash. This is just a slicker version of the same crime. Only this time, he left a witness.”
    Having likely seen them coming, Lieutenant Martin waved Jason and Noah into his office, hanging up the phone as they crossed the threshold and shut the door. “ Tell me we’re getting somewhere on the Gallagher case.”
    Jason gripped the printout in his hand so hard it crumpled, and he forced himself to stand still on the carpet in front of Lieu’s desk. “We’re getting somewhere, alright. She just gave up a positive ID on a mug shot.”
    “And why is it that we’re sitting here talking about it instead of bringing this guy in?”
    “Because that tattoo she saw isn’t of a skeleton. It’s of a very distinct Grim Reaper.”
    The lieutenant’s brows snapped together. “Are you telling me— ”
    “She ID’ed Dirk Brody.”
    L ieutenant Martin’s shoulders hit the back of his desk chair with a thump and a hard curse, and yeah, that about summed things up. “Christ. Is she sure?”
    The image o f Serenity’s face, with the stubborn crease in her forehead and her balls-to-the-wall attitude, forced a humorless laugh past Jason’s lips. “One hundred percent. And now that Ernie Sands is in jail, it only makes sense that Brody would step in to expand his territory.” The guy might value brute force over brilliance, but he was slicker than a case and a half of Pennzoil. Copycatting the robberies with his own touch in order to make fast cash was just his speed.
    “Detective Morgan.” Lieutenant Martin split his dark-eyed gaze between him and Noah, settling it on Jason before he spoke. “Are you still interested in this task force?”
    Confusion pricked through him, but he answered anyway. “Yes, sir.”
    “Good, because you’re about to be up to your ass in it. Up until this morning, Brody belonged to vice. But now he’s ours, and we’re going to need to work fast.”
    Noah shook his head, marking his confusion. “I don’t get it. Dirk Brody fronts the biggest drug ring in Brenstville, possibly in half of upstate New York. Vice has been trying to nail him for ages. Why would they just turn him over to us?” he asked, and Jason echoed the sentiment. No self-respecting cop