Something cold moves up my spine. "What do you mean, you know? How do you know about the case?"
"Forget it."
"No." My voice shakes but I don't back down. "I'm done with half-answers. Tell me."
He looks up. Studies my face like he's deciding whether I'm glass or something harder.
"Do you really want to know?" Low, careful. "Even if it changes everything?"
I hesitate. Just a second.
He laughs once, short and bitter. "I knew it."
"I can handle it."
"Prove it." He steps closer, slow and deliberate. "Can you keep a secret, Goldilocks?"
"Yes," I whisper.
He leans in until his lips are at my ear, his breath warm against my skin. "I'm the reason he's gone."
A small gasp slips out before I can catch it.
"Your boss. The case." His voice stays low. "Fuck that guy. He had it coming."
We sit in the silence after it lands. The only sounds are the dripping and the soft rasp of his breathing. I can feel him watching me, waiting to see which way I break.
"Wow," I manage. It's inadequate. There are a hundred questions ricocheting around my skull and none of them can find their way out.
"He pissed off the wrong people with that case," he says, like that's an explanation.
"What happened?" I ask. Barely above a whisper.
He exhales slowly. "The woman who died — she wasn't a number. She was a mother. A wife. Her father's entire world. And your boss stood up in that courtroom and turned her into an addict in front of a jury. Twisted her story until her own death looked like her fault." His jaw flexes. "Someone hired me to correct that."
"The firm defending Plex never sat right with me," I say quietly. "Those boys in the courtroom. Their father. Her father. I couldn't stop thinking about them after."
"That's where I come in."
"He was a fucking creep on top of it," I say, before I can stop myself.
A beat of silence. The truth sits between us, messy and mutual.
"Robin Hood," I add, half teasing, half meaning it.
He scoffs. "Robin Hood."
"Well, if I'm Goldilocks, it's only fair you get a fairy tale name too."
Something almost amused flickers across his face. "I'm not a hero."
"You are, a little. In my eyes."
He huffs out something close to a laugh. "I'm just trying to make my mom proud."
"You two are close."
"She's all I have. Her, my cousin, my uncle. Just the four of us. Always has been."