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“Three years.”

“Tell me about that.”

She looks at the table for a moment. Not evasively—just finding the right place to start. “I won't tell you it was a good three years because it wasn’t. He was—” She stops. “He wasn’t a good person. I stayed because leaving wasn’t a safe option and staying kept me alive and kept the people around me safer than they would have been without me there.”

I hate that I have to make her answer this, but the drill is to ask a few open-ended questions about the past to see if Lexi senses anything nefarious.

“And when he died?”

She lifts her chin. “When Lexi killed him, I wasn’t sad.” No hesitation. “Not because of my own feelings either. It was the right call for her.”

“It was an accident,” Lexi puts in.

Andy shakes her head. “Even if you hadn’t done it that day, it would have been necessary eventually.” She looks at me. “I chose Lexi before Lexi knew she was choosing anything.” A pause. “And I’d make that choice again every time.”

The two share a look of pure friendship.

“Why her specifically?” I ask.

Andy considers this with the seriousness it deserves. “Because she walked into a world that did everything it could to break her and decided to be decent anyway.” She says it simply. “That’s rarer than it should be. I wanted to be part of what she was building.”

I look at her for a moment. She looks back without flinching. It doesn’t take an alpha’s bond to know Andy is unfailingly loyal to her new alphas.

“One more question,” I say. “Do you have any personal relationships within the pack that go deeper than professional? Anyone you’d describe as closer than a colleague?”

She hesitates a beat. “Yes.”

I wait.

She exhales once. Short and controlled. “Dutch and I,” she says. “It’s… new. And not something I’ve advertised. But you asked, and I’m not going to lie about it.”

I glance at Lexi. Her expression is doing something complicated that I think might be delight she’s trying to keep professionally contained.

“I’m sorry that I have to ask, but did you ever meet up with Dutch before Lexi became your alpha? Maybe with Ramsey present?”

Disgust flashes. For the first time, she looks insulted. “Of course not. I was married.”

“Fair enough.” I set my pen down. “That’s everything, Andy. Thank you.”

She stands. Picks up her tablet. Pauses at the door.

“For what it’s worth,” she says, “whoever it is, they’re not in the group you’ve spoken to today. I’d stake everything on it.” She glances over her shoulder at Lexi. “Which means your problem is more complicated than you thought.”

She leaves, and Lexi sighs, leaning back in her chair. Running her alpha senses at full capacity has already left a visible mark. “Clean,” she says. “All of them, which means Andy’s right.”

“I know.”

“Andy and Dutch.” She softens. “I’m so happy for them. Andy deserves something good after everything Toros put her through.” She looks at the door Andy just left through with an expression that has nothing to do with pack politics and everything to do with genuine affection. “Dutch will be good to her.”

“He seems like the type.”

“He is.” She pauses. “He's also the type to drive her insane on a daily basis, but I think that’s part of it.”

I almost smile at that, thinking of Mia.

We sit for a moment in the quiet, neither one of us in a hurry to call in the next victim. The afternoon light streams golden through the windows. For a moment, I get caught in the beauty of it. The way the dust motes dance. The aura glowing at the edges. The pulse of life as it streams into the room.

Then I blink, and almost laugh at the poetry I’m weaving. What the hell. I must still be exhausted from yesterday’s encounter with Grey.