17 Mia finally dropped off to sleep near dawn. Brax wished he’d been able to do the same, but his mind wouldn’t turn off. Needing to move, he slipped out of bed, leaving her curled up with Leno and heading for the kitchen. They’d stumbled home well past midnight, after enduring what had felt like an endless parade of county officials. The Sheriff’s Department, who’d left the bakery unguarded in response to a domestic violence call down in Hyde’s Hills Trailer Park. The fire department EMT, who’d been dispatched ahead of the ambulance that had to come all the way from Johnson City. The county coroner. Because Brax had killed a man tonight. There’d been questions. So many questions. But ultimately, they’d both been released. The dead man had been identified as Joe Abruzzi, an ex-con with

