I pull up Stella’s school schedule on my phone. Play practice until five thirty. Safe. Accounted for. Elena Vasquez is dead.
But her clients aren’t.
And the people who benefit from silence rarely gamble with their freedom.
Chapter
One
Alicia
My phone lights up with an unrecognized number: three nines in a row.
I force myself to answer.
“This is Alicia Morgan.”
“Alicia, good. I got you.”
I glance at the screen, switch to speaker, and set the phone on my desk. The afternoon sun slants through the window in my home office, the light too bright. I should close the blinds, but I don't move.
“Dorian? Where are you calling from?”
“Colorado. Caroline was just updating me?—”
“The answer is no.”
“Alicia…” He blends disappointment, censure, and warmth into one word.
“They won’t be in your way,” he insists.
“I agreed to security at my office and in select public locations. Not my home.”
“I’ve been to your home. No cameras. A gate that opens onto a public sidewalk. Anyone who wants to watch you walks right past it on their morning run.”
“I live in Georgetown, Dorian.” I square the corners of the file folders on my desk until they form a perfect ninety-degree angle. “Tell Caroline I said hello.”
“She’s the reason I’m calling. Correction. Your daughter is the reason. If someone wants to reach you, Stella is the easiest way.”
My fingers drift to my grandmother’s vintage Cartier watch on my wrist, the metal cool against my skin. “No one is coming after me.”
“The woman who claimed they would is dead. Does that not concern you?”
“She killed herself to avoid prison.”
“Or she knew what was coming.”
I lean back, press my head against the chair, and exhale through clenched teeth. “Dorian, you’re one of my best friends?—”
“Really? Every time we invite you out to visit us, you decline.”
“I have a twelve-year-old. Weekends away aren’t an option.”
“Because she’s your world. Which is why I can’t believe you refused security.” His tone softens. “I nearly lost Caroline once. Don’t make the mistake I did. If something happens to Stella, you won’t recover.”
Well, now that he’s gone and said that…
“Do you even have proof this supposed network exists? Yes, my client was blackmailed. Yes, people paid. But no one has contacted me.”