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I already know where this is going before she says it. “How old is the headmaster?” she asks quietly.

“Fifty-eight.”

“So he would’ve been twenty when he graduated,” she replies.

“Correct,” Kyle confirms. “Which places him directly in that cohort.”

She leans forward slightly, closer to the screen now. “If the killer is tied to him, then he could be one of the people in those photos.”

There was a beat of silence on the line.

“You are not paid enough for this, Miss Vitelli,” Kyle says finally.

I smile at her as she chuckles. She looks exhausted from it all, but she keeps working and working, like she’s avoiding moments of peace. Maybe that’s when the thoughts creep out in her head. She hasn’t stopped, not once since we sat down, nor since the case started tightening around her.

I should’ve been focusing on the case. Instead I was counting the seconds between her breaths to make sure she wasn’t slipping away from my fingers again.

Her fingers tighten against my leg, subtle enough that she probably didn’t notice. But I did. And I don’t know which part of that bothered me more. How tired she is from this, or how I was the one pulling her into this.

Sometimes I regret the way I included her in my own vendetta.

I lean forward and kiss her before I can overthink any of it. “I love when you do that,” I say softly.

“What?” she asks, smiling against my lips.

“Show me how smart you are, like that.”

Kyle is still talking on the line, but I reach for the phone without looking at it.

“Stay on, man you can kiss her later,” he says laughing.

“I am,” I rasp, against her lips before pulling away. “Pull everything you can from that year,” I tell him. “Yearbook, class photos, any surviving records. I want names, affiliations, post-graduation placements, anything, especially anyone who stayed within the system or the region where the first murder occurred out of Seraphin Bay.”

“On it boss,” he replies. “But you owe me days off after this.”

“Okay, send me everything, tell the team it’s your priority,” I say one last time before hanging up.

I set the phone down, losing myself in her presence once more. She is still looking at the screen, her lips plushier from how hard I kissed her, but I could see the dip in her focus now that the immediate structure of the conversation had stopped.

That quiet drop that came when there was no task left to hold onto. So, I reach for her hand on my leg, and she holds it immediately.

“We have a fundraiser next week,” I start. “I’ll use that to steal Ms Green’s access card to get into the physical archives in her office. If I can get into the original files from that year, then we can cross-reference everything properly.”

She tilts her head slightly. “Can I help?”

“No.”

Her gaze sharpens and I soften it, leaning in and brushing a kiss against her again, slower this time, like a pause I need more than she does from this whole mess.

“You’re graduating from St. Ellesta soon,” I whisper quietly. “I’m not risking what you’ve worked for.”

She holds my gaze for a moment, then nods. “But you’ll keep me in the loop.”

“Always.”

A pause settles between us again, before she leans in, her arms wrapping around my neck. “You’re my partner in crime, Damien Caldwell.”

That pulls a faint smile I don’t bother hiding. “Good,” I say. “Because you’re better at this than you think.”