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They made a report, but told her to wait another twenty-four hours.
Anna checked in with Olivia’s friends, but no one had heard from her.
Eventually she went back to Olivia’s house in the early hours of the morning, unable to catch even a wink of sleep. How could she sleep when Olivia was missing?
She hadn’t known if the dark was playing tricks on her mind, but she’d felt eyes on her the entire time she’d been in the apartment.
So she’d made it quick, got what she needed, and left with Olivia’s computer.
Only when she’d closed the door to her own house had she felt safe. She’d made a cup of tea, snuggled into the couch, and begun the game of guessing Olivia’s password. It didn’t take her long: it was their childhood puppy’s name and Olivia’s favorite number:007.
Like Olivia’s apartment, nothing seemed out of place until she opened a photograph that had been deleted but left in the trash bin.
A man she came to know as Diaz was at Sloan’s having a drink with a man who looked so much like him Anna had assumed they were related, perhaps brothers.
Over the years, Anna had pried what information she could from him, casually asking about his family, his siblings. All he’d said was he had a brother, Dominic, who he hadn’t heard from in years. She didn’t know when that photograph had been taken, nor had she confirmed it was his brother, because she’d never seen another photograph of Dominic.
But Olivia had saved that photograph for a reason. What had she known that Anna didn’t?
Anna’s eyes went to the end of the hallway as Miss Casino emerged from the guest room where she slept when Diaz was there.
Anna knew she’d start purring soon, so she backed up quickly, light on her feet so as not to make a sound as her pulse raced. When she was back far enough, she called out his name.
“Diaz?”
“In here,” he said.
She walked forward, opening the door to her study. He sat at her desk like he owned it.
“What are you doing?” she asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
He shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep. I’m too excited, thinking of ways to shake things up with the Feds.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea? Anything that looks like retaliation is only going to motivate them,” she said, walking toward her desk.
A sly smile curled his lips. “That’s why it’s not going to look like retaliation. It’ll look like an accident, but I’m going to bring hell.”
Anna’s stared at him. This was insane. This was unlike Diaz.
“I’m going to get to the bottom of this. I’m going to find out who is betraying me, and I’ll be counting down their last breaths.”
Anna’s chest tightened as she wondered how many breaths she had left to take.
JACKSON
He eased his foot off the accelerator as he passed by the house. The lights were off, but there was enough light from the streetlight to see the white paint was peeling and the grass in the front lawn would reach his knees.
No one had done any maintenance on this property for some time.
But that made sense if Anna King was dead and her estate had been left to her father, who was in a nursing home for dementia. He wondered again why it hadn’t been sold.
He scanned the street for any movement, but the residents of Lakewater Drive seemed to be in bed—the same place Jackson should’ve been, but when Max emailed him this address, he couldn’t resist the urge to have a quick look.
Jackson drove around the block and parked his car.
The cold wind whipped his face as he walked back toward Anna King’s house.
He moved as casually as he could, but his eyes continuously darted around, scanning every shadow. Jackson didn’t anticipate a threat tonight, but he didn’t fully understand this case and wasn’t going to let his guard down while he was doing anything remotely related to Diaz Smith.
