Chapter One

Olivia Bennington looked up from her legal brief to see that the world around her had dimmed its lights for the night. Aside from her fifth floor office where the light above her desk still hummed, the prosecutor’s offices were dark. She vaguely remembered dismissing her secretary Sasha with a wave of her hand. Maybe she looked up and offered the perky brunette a faint smile, but it wouldn’t be one either would remember. After the conviction of Sonny Sanchez, she’d have to take Sasha and her team to dinner, something fancy, one of those trendy bistros by the park, perhaps. But not untilafterthe conviction.

Unfortunately, Sanchez was not going down without a fight—not that Olivia expected the prosecution of the mob boss to go easy. He was a thug, but a smart thug for a change, who’d done a creditable job of dotting I’s and crossing T’s and looking pretty smug about it in court. Beneath Olivia’s cool exterior, where few had ever ventured, was a woman smoldering with enough righteous indignation to slap the grin off the man’s handsome face. Wouldn’t the media just love to record a scene like that! The charismatic Sonny faces off with the beautiful redheaded prosecutor—perfect fodder for scandals sheets and Internet blogs. With a lack of other hard news to occupy their hours, Sonny Sanchez’ trial had been at the center of the news cycle for three weeks, and would likely dominate the headlines for at least the next month.

“Oh my!” she sat back and sighed. She pushed away from her desk and meandered through the darkened office to the coffee pot in the lunch room where she poured herself what was left, a thick soup of blackish sludge, the remains of some designer brew Angelica had made much earlier in the day. It would have to do. She wasn’t about to put quarters in the big machine in the hallway, and she certainly didn’t need a fresh pot.

Returning to her desk, she set down the mug then headed for the bathroom, returning a few minutes later for what she expected would be another two hours working on her plans for the following day. Her shoulders ached and her eyes hurt, but she had work to get done. Picking up her coffee mug, she took a couple wincing sips, then stared out the window to the stree