Midnight Shadows by Ella Grace

Came with his mother to the States when he was a toddler. Mama was unmarried but trying her best. Unfortunately she hooked up with the wrong man. He got her hooked on drugs. She OD'd. Stepdad ended up dead in a back alley. Cruz got locked into the system. He followed in his mother’s footsteps and hooked up with the wrong people.”  
    “Yeah, except he went a different way.”  
    “Exactly. Instead of taking the drugs, he sold them. Hell of a note to sell the crap that killed the only person who gave a damn about you.”  
    “I doubt he worried about that too much. I traced him through various gangs. He's served some time but nothing significant. He got called in for questioning on several suspicious deaths, but nothing could ever be proven.”  
    “I'd say he avoided being called in for questioning even more than that. Looks like when he was nineteen he might've had his first kill.”  
    Ian shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
    “Really?”
    “No. I think his first kill was his stepfather.”  
    Sabrina turned back to her notes, noted timelines, location. She nodded slowly. “I’ll bet you’re right. Should've seen that. He didn't even get called in for questioning.”  
    “He was a kid and already a good liar.”
    “I can find almost nothing about him after his nineteenth birthday.”  
    Ian stood and walked over to her board. Taking his iPhone from his pocket, he pulled up the info he’d stored on Cruz. “I've got him in Chicago for a few more years. Up to his mid-twenties.” He took the marker from her hand and jotted the notes on the board.  
    “How'd you find him there?”  
    “Found a couple of records that mention a kid named 'Mando'. It gave enough information for me to catch on that it was Cruz.”  
    “So he went to Chicago. When did he come back to Miami?”  
    “Hard to say. He stayed below radar there.”  
    “You think that's where the boss man—Cruz’s mentor, lives? In Chicago? That might've been why it was taking so long for him to get to the club where Marsh and Garrett held me. That’s a long flight.”  
    “Could be.”  
    “So...Who's going to Chicago?”  
    “Since you haven't left Midnight in months, I'd say the answer to that is an easy one.”  
    She grimaced. “Sammie called me on that today.”  
    “I’m surprised it took her that long. I understand why, but it's been almost six months. If they knew you were here, they would’ve come for you long before now.”  
    “I agree. I just want to wait a little while longer. With Savvy just giving birth and Sammie planning her wedding, I don’t want to be caught blindsided. Keeping them safe is too important.”  
    “And you still won’t tell them what went down?”  
    She gave an emphatic shake of her head. “There's no way to keep them out of it if I told them. They'd want to help.”
    “And that's a problem why?”
    “I’m the one who caused this, Ian. I can’t put them at risk.”
    “You didn’t cause this. You were doing a job. That’s the nature of the kind of work we do.”
    “True, but it shouldn’t cause problems for our loved ones.”
    Ian could argue until he was out of breath and it would do no good. Sabrina had set herself up as protector of those she loved. As much as it infuriated him that this lovely, delicate looking woman thought she should take all of this on by herself, he couldn’t help but love her for being so caring.
    “Then we’ll protect them together.”
    A brilliant light entered her eyes as she slid her arms around him. “Thank you, Ian. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
    “We make a good team.”
    “Yeah.” Her smile was both sweet and seductive. “We do.”
    He dropped back into the chair he’d vacated and then pulled her down into his lap. In an instant his hands were sliding beneath her shirt, meeting soft, silky flesh.
    She pressed her face against his neck, breathed him in. “This is another part of working together I miss. Work