“Uh, what are you doing?”“Nothing much. Just erasing all of Calinda’s good grades and replacing them with incompletes. Eventually, the administrators will figure out what happened, but I’m making it look like a computer error. Still, I imagine she’ll get some nasty lectures from her profs and parents in the meantime.”

“You picked that out?” Caine asked. “That pink, plastic toy?”I turned to look at him. “I happen to have been a little girl, once upon a time, detective. I know what they like. Every little girl wants to be a princess.”A thoughtful frown overcame the angry tension on Caine’s rugged face. “And what happens when they grow up?”I thought of my mother and sisters and all the horrors that had happened the day they’d died. A bitter laugh escaped from my tight lips. “Then they just want to be little girls again.”

“What are you smiling at?’ - ‘Oh, nothing much. Just my hero”

“This is really good,” Donovan Caine said, attacking his third strawberry pancake. “You sound surprised,” I said. He shrugged. “I just didn’t think an assassin would be able to cook like this.” “Well, I do get lots of practice with knives. You could say I’m multitasking.” The detective froze, his fork halfway to his mouth. “I’m kidding. I enjoy cooking. It relaxes me.”

“Instead, I cut him. Not deep, but there was enough of a sting in the wound to remind him of what I'd done to the dwarven mobsters in the parking lot - and that I wasn't just some chick with a knife who looked good in black.”

“There's nothing I can do that's going to drive you away, is there?" I murmured.Owen flashed me a sly grin. "Finally figuring that out, are you?I nodded.His grin deepened. "Well, it sure took you long enough.”

“Oh, baby. You have no idea what I’d do to get through those layers and down to the good stuff.”