Hotshot defense attorney James Scott always follows his gut -- even when it tells him an obviously guilty man is a victim himself. Homicide detective Owen Duke doesn't have time for gut feelings -- he lives by logic and evidence. And all the evidence tells him that Scott's client is guilty of the cold-blooded murder of a young ballerina.<br><br>Scott, a notorious media darling, is willing to risk his reputation and his career on the kid's innocence. But his undeniable charm is not enough to save his client's life. He needs Owen Duke, a man who stands for truth and justice, even if the detective hates Scott and his gut feelings.<br><br>What's supposed to be an open-and-shut case quickly becomes a quagmire of lies, murder, and rotting corruption. Suddenly, instead of being a thorn in Duke's side, James Scott is the only person in San Francisco the detective can trust. As the attraction between them deepens, they race to save an innocent man, but can they save their own hearts in the process?

Pas de Deux

Publicly, Scott maintained that it was Horan’s decisions that brought them to that point. Horan, who hired a man to break into Tana’s apartment and “scare her a bit.” It was Horan who tried to cover that murder with the arrest of an innocent man, and then tried to blackmail that man with the murder of another innocent. It was Horan who was willing to sacrifice the careers of not one, not two, but three good cops. And what could anybody say back to that? Nobody wanted to get caught defending Horan in this scandal. Updates still hit the national news on a daily basis, and while Scott didn’t mind being in the national spotlight—being a hero in the national spotlight—the people who were struggling to pick up the pieces wanted to avoid the cameras and the questions at all costs.


Chapter 71