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the stairs. “Can I jump on the bed, Debbie?”
    The woman gave a low chuckle. “Maybe just a few bounces.”
    Lindsey seemed to have found her attitude again and glared at him. “Why don’t you just drop the stupid case so we can have our lives back?”
    With that parting shot, she turned on her heel, shoving past Debbie and Christopher.
    â€œLindsey…” Nick’s voice trailed off when he realized his niece had no intention of heeding his call. With a sigh, he shut his eyes and stood without moving for several seconds.Carly knew he was wondering if he should go after her or not, and her heart ached for him.
    She offered him her unsolicited advice, keeping her voice low and trying to offer encouragement. “Give her some space. She’ll be all right.”
    Although why she wanted to make him feel better was beyond her. How many hours had she lain awake thinking about her mentor, Hank, who had been cut down coming out of his granddaughter’s ballet recital? How many times had she railed at the heavens for placing a judge on the bench who didn’t care that he was releasing a monster back into the world?
    And yet…she felt something for him. Her traitorous heart kept wondering if maybe she had things skewed. Maybe she didn’t know all the facts about that case.
    â€œI know,” Nick finally said. “She’s just had it so rough for so long—and now this.”
    A loud thump sounded from upstairs, and Carly started, her hand on her gun. Mason took up guard next to Nick.
    â€œIt’s just Christopher,” Nick said, holding up a hand to stop her progress.
    She paused. “What do you mean?”
    A guilty flush started appeared on his face. “Um…he likes to jump on the bed, and I let him…sometimes.”
    â€œThat was a pretty loud thump.”
    â€œYeah, he likes to put his beanbags on the floor and…” Another thump sounded, and Carly flinched.
    â€œâ€¦jump from the bed to the beanbags,” she finished for him.
    He shrugged. “Yep.”
    â€œOkay. That’s good information to have. However—” she looked at Mason “—why don’t you go check to make sure?” He nodded and left. Carly paced to the kitchen andback then shot a glance at Nick. “That’s sweet of you to let him do something most parents would yell about.”
    Another guilty flush appeared, and he looked away. Inspiration hit her. “You do it, too, don’t you?”
    He raised a brow, going for the innocent look. “What do you mean?”
    â€œOh, no, you don’t, Nicholas Floyd, you don’t fool me.” She shook a finger at him. “Not only do you do it, too, I bet you taught him!”
    Nick shoved his hands into his pockets, and Carly swore he was hiding a grin. “Well, I…”
    Carly crossed her arms and put on her stern look. “Come on, Judge, how do you plead?”
    He let out a sigh and the little-boy look on his face tugged at her heartstrings. “Guilty as charged, ma’am.”
    Carly felt her heart thaw about ten degrees. She sobered and looked into his eyes, thought about asking him about the murderer he’d let go. No not now, she decided.
    Nicholas placed a hand on her arm, and she felt the touch clear to her toes. She turned a questioning look at him, as he said, “Thank you.”
    â€œFor what?”
    â€œFor everything. For not giving me a hard time about not hiding out and leaving the bad guys to you.”
    Crossing her arms over her middle, Carly zeroed in on his eyes. “Yeah, about that. We’re going to have to have a little heart-to-heart about some of those rules we kind of skipped over earlier.”

FOUR
    N ick raised a brow. “Let me check on the kids, and then we can talk.” He didn’t really need to check on them. He knew Debbie would take good care of them; however, their frightened faces wouldn’t