Page 81 of Velvet Vaughn

“I told no one at Pinnacle about it. Not even Curtis. How would Danica know?”

“She told me that Marcy mentioned you were dealing with a security issue.” Anja held his gaze. “You told her you were working from home to keep your head down before the wake, and that’s all she thinks this is.”

“So Danica lied to cover how she actually knew.”

Anja hated to do this to Leo. “Or Marcy did say that, and she knows more than she’s admitted.”

Leo winced. “Not Marcy.”

“Until we clear her, she’s a suspect. Either way, it means Danica Webb had specific knowledge about a break-in that only a handful of people knew about, and she readily volunteered it to me at a funeral.”

Remi crossed his arms. “Kellerman Gates is one of the three agencies repping athletes on that drive.”

“Which means she’s not just a rival agent making conversation.” Anja pushed off the counter. “She’s either directly involved, or in contact with someone who is.”

“Do we confront her?” Leo asked.

“I want to sit across a table from her and watch her explain herself in real time. People slip when they’re not expecting the question.” Anja reached for her phone, mentally mapping the drive back into Clayton in the morning and the best approach to the Kellerman Gates offices that would allow them to walk in without announcing themselves. “I’ll call Tyler back, have him pull her schedule for today, find out where—”

Her phone buzzed with Tyler’s ringtone before she could dial. She activated the speakerphone.

“What’s up?”

“I’ve set up alerts for some of the people we’ve talked about, and I just got a ping.”

“Who is it?”

“Danica Webb.”

Anja’s gaze snapped to Leo. “I was just getting ready to call you about her schedule for today.”

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen. There was an accident last night around one in the morning, not long after the wake broke up. Her car went off Highway 40, hit a retaining wall, and burst into flames.” His pause told her what was coming next. “She was pronounced dead at the scene.”

Leo’s jaw dropped, and Remi’s arms uncrossed slowly.

“The initial police report says there are no skid marks or any indication she braked before impact.” Tyler let that sit. “I know how that sounds.”

It sounded like Danica Webb had known something she shouldn’t have, revealed too much to the wrong person, and within hours had been erased from the equation entirely. “She wasn’t just talking to someone inside this. She was a loose end.”

“And somebody just proved how efficiently they clean those up,” Remi murmured, his expression grim.

Anja thanked Tyler and set her phone down on the counter, her mind racing ahead to what this meant. Another person was gone before she could get answers. Another door had slammed shut before Anja finished knocking.

Whoever was running this had heard about Danica’s conversation at the wake fast enough to act on it within hours. Somebody in that courtyard reported straight back to the person giving the orders.

#

Leo woke to an arm that throbbed in time with his pulse. He lay still for a minute, cataloging the ache and the unfamiliar room. He’d managed four hours of sleep, maybe five, thanks to the drugs Remi gave him for the pain.

Leo sat up slowly, favoring the bandaged arm, and eased on one of the shirts Remi had purchased. His shoulder complained the whole way down the hall.

Anja wasn’t in the bedroom she’d claimed. He found her in the kitchen instead, hunched over her laptop at the island. Morning light came through the window behind her, catching the side of her face, and for a second he just stood in the doorway and watched her work.

Then he noticed the tension in her shoulders. That couldn’t be good.

“You look like you’re about to tell me something I don’t want to hear.”

Her head came up. Whatever she’d been reading, she didn’t close it, but her hand hovered near the trackpad as though she was considering it. “You should be asleep.”