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gap had given her enough insight to avoid the pettiness of sibling rivalry. She may not have been a nurturer, but she wasn’t a traitor, either. And nobody could ever say that the Franco kids didn’t look out for one another.
    Even so, she really annoyed him sometimes.
    “I’m going to trust you on that,” she said. “But if any fingerprints show up, you’re on your own.”
    “They won’t,” he told her, relieved that he’d had the wherewithal to use his shirttail for protection. “I promise.”
    She studied him a moment longer, then nodded and walked away, heading into the garage.
    When she was gone, Rafe let out a long breath and tried not to feel too guilty.

Chapter Four
    “So is your sister seeing anyone these days?”
    The deputy he’d snagged to drive him back to the station was a guy named Phil Harris. Harris was what qualified in the patrol division as an old-timer, although he couldn’t yet be over forty. He’d been with the department since he was Rafe’s age and had never progressed further than a RS-3 pay grade.
    Harris was a good cop, but not the most ambitious guy in the department.
    “Sorry, Phil, I don’t keep track of her love life. You’d have to ask her.”
    Harris wasn’t the first deputy to approach Rafe about Kate. One of the hazards of working in the same department as your sister was that you had to put up with every hot-to-trot single—and sometimes married—guy on the job, looking to get into her pants. Rafe would be the first to admit that Kate was a looker—she did have the Franco genes, after all—but the last thing he wanted to think about was who she may or may not be sleeping with.
    “I was hoping you’d put in a good word for me,” Harris said. “Let her know I’m interested.”
    What was this—high school?
    Rafe shook his head. “First, I’ve got zero influence over Kate. And second, you might as well stand in line. You’re about the fifteenth deputy who’s asked me about her in the last month alone—and the competition is stiff.”
    “How stiff?”
    “Like County Undersheriff stiff.”
    Harris’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re telling me she’s been hitting it with Macon?”
    “That’s the rumor,” Rafe said. “But, as I told you, I don’t keep track. I’m having a hard enough time with my own love life.”
    Harris turned. “I thought you were dating that blonde in dispatch? The one with the big—”
    “That’s been over for months,” Rafe said. “In fact, it was over before it really got started. No chemistry. Besides, I don’t have time for romance. I’ve got to think about my career.”
    Harris snorted. “You sound like me about twenty years ago. I passed up on a perfectly good relationship—a gal I could have had a life with—all because I thought I didn’t have time for that nonsense. Now look at me. I’m alone and going nowhere. And believe me, it isn’t much fun.”
    Rafe found his mind wandering back to last night’s dream and the girl he’d left behind. He shook the thought away.
    “Boo-hoo,” he said. “I’m still not going to set you up with my sister.”
    Harris grinned. “You saw what I was trying to do there, huh?”
    “From a couple hundred yards away.”
    * * *
    T HEY WEREN’T TWO MILES from the station house when Harris’s radio came to life.
    “Dispatch to Unit Ten, do you read me?”
    Harris snatched up his handset. “This is Ten. What do you got?”
    “A possible 273 D in Forest Park. Can you respond?”
    Two-seventy-three D was code for a domestic dispute, every deputy’s least favorite type of call. Too often it was a husband being abusive to his wife, and Rafe had no tolerance for such men. It took everything he had to keep himself from giving the abuser a very painful life lesson.
    Harris turned to him. “You in?”
    Rafe was already supposed to be off the clock, but despite his reservations, he found that he still had a lot of pent-up energy coursing through his veins.
    “Sure,” he