“God, I’m glad I don’t get cases like that. It would make me sick. It’s bad enough watching guys who won’t support their children but go out and buy a new Porsche. I made one of them sell his to give back support to his ex-wife. Sometimes guys can be such jerks. But this sounds ugly.” And Muriel didn’t like it. Not at all.

“Just looking at him, knowing what I do about him, the guy scares me to death,” Alexa admitted. She wouldn’t have said it to anyone but her mother. She didn’t usually have that kind of reaction, but Quentin’s arrogant, invasive glances at her had really gotten under her skin.

“Be careful,” her mother warned her.

“I’m not going to be alone with him, Mom.” Alexa smiled at her. She loved the fact that they could talk about work, among other things. Her mother had saved her life when she got back from Charleston. It had been her idea for Alexa to go to law school, and as usual she’d been right. “They bring him to court in cuffs and shackles,” she reassured her, but her mother still looked worried.

“Sometimes guys like that have friends. As a prosecutor, you’re going to be the focus of all his anger, if you indict him and bring him to trial. If you do, as far as he’s concerned, you’re the reason he’s in jail. And the press will eat you alive on a case like this too.” They both knew she was right about that.

“He doesn’t seem to mind being in jail. And the guy who lost the Porsche was probably pretty pissed at you too.” Once or twice her mother had had to have a deputy sheriff at the house for protection during a tough case. Her mother laughed at what Alexa had said. And then Alexa had an idea. “Do you want to come to dinner tomorrow night?”

Her mother looked mildly embarrassed. “I can’t. I have a date.”

“You and Savannah. I can’t keep up with either of you.”