A Single Bright Candle's Flame (Criminal Intentions: Season One #9)

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

Detective Malcolm Khalaji is at a loss.

For the second time in his life, he wasn't there when his lover needed him. And with Seong-Jae Yoon on leave pending an internal investigation, Malcolm doesn't know what to do with a shattered partner and boyfriend who's retreated from him into a dark and broken place. It's Gabrielle all over again...yet this time, Malcolm is determined to do this right. This time he's determined to be there no matter what Seong-Jae needs, even if it means taking time off from the pressures of their job to hold Seong-Jae through every moment of trauma, of guilt, of self-recrimination.

Until a frantic phone call from Seong-Jae's parents destroys any hope of peace.

Because Seong-Jae's younger sister is missing—and there's only one place she would go.

Yet even if the desperate search breaks Seong-Jae's numbness, it's the warmth of family that brings him back from a black and dangerous edge—and shows Malcolm a side to Seong-Jae he never could have imagined. But not even these idyllic moments of calm are safe, as the twisted machinations surrounding them continue. If each player in this game is a chess piece, then none other than Edmund Bishop is a pawn, sacrificed to save his queen. Yet is Lillienne Wellington really the one pulling the strings?

Or is someone else trying to eliminate Bishop for their own dire ends?

Rated '2/5 - Behind closed doors' for steam/spice/heat level.