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Well, I certainly get that air quotes are often meant to show sarcasm, but I’ve never seen it be so obvious before. I like this guy. He’s a straight shooter. Doesn’t talk in riddles like Brennan.

“I think I understand. It’s in everyone’s best interest to see those drugs taken off the street. When I texted Brennan it was because they somehow showed up at my kid’s school.” I won’t hear about those things getting near my little girl again.

Liam stuffs his hands into his pockets. “Right. We had a situation not too long ago where Adam and Troy got tossed into a van with their boyfriend and drugged. Something related to an illegal porn operation. When we found them, they’d been forced to take a new street drug. We’re as sure as we can be that that operation’s been shut down.”

Okay, I’m not even touching most of that statement. “Am I wrong, or do I hear a ‘but’ coming?” There must be one, if those pills are still around.

“But we’re less sure about the drugs. It’s not clear if the pills circulating around town were already out there and we simply need to do cleanup, or if someone’s trying to restart distribution.”

None of this is giving me positive vibes. “What can we do?”

Liam pushes away from the wall. “Talk with anyone you can at your daughter’s school. Get any information about who found the pills, where they think they may have come from.”

“My daughter and another student found them in the bathroom, but that’s all they’d say. Ella said it was a friend but couldn’t give me a name. She thinks of every kid in class as her friend, and she’s worse with names than I am.”

“They’re probably afraid of privacy issues, or that you’ll stir up shit with the other kid’s parents if you know who it is. Spend some time at pickup and drop-off if you can. Talk to the other parents in Ella’s class. Someone may have seen something. I have a hacker on payroll who can dig into backgrounds on any names we get to see who might be into shady shit.”

“My hacker’s better than your hacker,” Brennan says.

“Your stupid pissing contest doesn’t matter right now.” Liam grunts and turns to me again. “Point is, if we can run down where this shit’s coming from, we can cut it off at the source.”

It sounds a little too simple. “Doesn’t this stuff usually come from outside the country?”

Brennan says, “Not always” at the same time as Liam says, “It depends.”

“There was that warehouse where Ravi accidentally ran face-first into a bunch of product. Shit was being made in-house,” Brennan explains. “So my money’s on some college chem major dropout, and I’m going to see that he pays.”

For some reason, that gives me pause. Not to defend anyone’s actions, but I can’t help but think of my own situation. “I’m a college dropout. Some things I’ve done for money are pretty ugly.”

Brennan looks amused as he kicks his feet up on the desk. “Why do I get the feeling you’re calling my dick ugly?”

I’m resisting the urge to squirm at his joke. “You know what I mean.”

He laughs. “Kidding, man. You’re so easy to fuck with. Jesus.”

I’m trying to think of a comeback, but I’m still thinking when the door to Brennan’s office opens again.

Jalen strides back in carrying a paper bag like the kind my mom packed my lunches in when she was still around.

“Found this skinny kid lurking outside,” he says.

Skinny kid indeed. He’s not as tall as I am, but pretty gangly. Younger than me, for sure. Seventeen or eighteen? I’m getting the picture of what I’d look like if I lost fifty pounds.

The kid looks familiar. I think Simon and his boyfriend brought him to brunch at Gil’s a few times. Justin? Joseph?

“Jacob, get the fuck out of here,” Brennan says without even looking at him.

Jacob. That’s it.

“I need to talk to you. It’s important.” The kid’s fidgety. I get that. I was the same way around Brennan in the beginning. I’ve gotten better at hiding it, at least.

Jesus, I hope the kid’s not working for Brennan, too. Looks way too young. Innocent.

The way Brennan’s cold gaze swings over to Jacob, he never looked at me like that. If he had, I probably would have pissed myself.

“Jacob. Get out of here.”

Honestly, I feel bad for the kid. He looks the way Ella does when she’s trying to hold back tears, but she’s seconds from a meltdown. For a beat I forget why I came, and I’ve got the urge to go ask if the guy needs a stuffed animal to hug.