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Especially when her expression evens out and she asks, “You ready for the update?”

Ace rolls over and sits up beside me, not a hint of sleep in his eyes as they hold mine.

I nod, and he snags the phone, drawing me against his side, holding me tight. “We’re ready.”

“All right, so”—Ally leans back in her office chair, a wicked smile curving her lips—“I told you I was going to make a couple of phone calls. Well, the first call I made was to an FBI agent I’m friends with. Agent Phillips specializes in prosecuting sex crimes and adding in blackmail—something the agency takes very seriously—meant that I had all of her attention. Very quickly.”

I suck in a breath.

“Obviously, we didn’t have a full case and we wanted this shit taken care of quietly—and well before the five o’clock deadline—so she called the local field office, had a technological forensics squad meet her at the Conrad compound”—Ally rolls her eyes—“and they went in. TJ was there alone. Apparently, the rest of your family is on some cruise in the Caribbean he didn’t want to go on and they were due to come back this evening. He’d tried to share the video with them—no surprise, since he’s a fucking scumbag—but service on the cruise was shit and the messages didn’t go through. The squad wiped the devices and the cloud and next they’re going through all of the tech at your parents’ house, Ace. So, the video is done and you don’t have to worry about it getting out. As for why TJ wanted you there in person…” She sighs. “That I’m still working on. But I’ll figure it out.”

I close my eyes. I know she will.

“I promise, Vi,” she says firmly.

I exhale, look at her. “It’s not that.”

“Then what, girlie?”

“It’s just…it was that easy?” I whisper.

What if Ace had let me go? What if I’d had to figure it out on my own?

God, I don’t even want to think about it.

Though one thing I do know is I wouldn’t have sorted it in just a few hours.

“For me, it was,” she says gently. “And because I had help.”

Not alone.

Don’t need to control everything.

Yeah, I’m getting it now.

“Though you still owe me a heart-to-heart over a bottle of gin.”

I chuckle. “I can do that.”

“That’s good because you don’t have a choice.”

“Ally,” Ace warns and I laugh, though it’s a bit watery.

“I don’t know how to thank you,” I blurt.

She waves that away. “I already told you how that’s going to happen, girlie.”

“Gin,” I say. “And sharing shit.”

“Exactly.”

We smile at each other. Then she gets right back to business.

Literally.

As in, her office line rings and she rushes us off the phone with hardly a goodbye.

“The woman’s a workaholic,” Ace murmurs.