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"Trouble?" a smooth voice inquires.
I look up to see my cousin Juno sidling up to the bar, an eyebrow quirked. With her black hair in finger-waves and her deep red lips, she looks like she just stepped out of some gangster movie.
"I'm just busy running this place," I reply breezily, hoping she can't see the turmoil roiling beneath my facade. Juno has a knack for sensing weakness. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
Her eyes narrow, seeing far more than I'd like. "Thought I'd stop in, see how you're holding up. No news yet about the charges?" I shake my head, and her gaze sweeps the club. "Back to business as usual, I see."
I lift my chin. "No point wallowing when there's money to be made."
"True," she agrees. "But since that undercover rat was arrested, I thought maybe that silly little case against you had finally collapsed."
I freeze in place, then slowly lower my glass to the bar before turning to face her fully. "What did you say?"
She blinks. "I said I thought the case against you—"
"Beforethat."
But before Juno can answer, Caitlin runs up, throwing her arms around her wife. "Here you are!" she cries out, peppering Juno's cheek with kisses.
But I grab Juno before she can kiss Caitlin back. "Say that again—about the officer being arrested?" I squeeze her arm a little too hard and she pulls away with a scowl.
"For God's sake, Alessa, I'm sorry I found out the gossip before you did. That Natalie Moreau, or whoever she really was. She got herself arrested by her own people, the Feds."
For a split second the words don't compute. Arrested?Natalie?But as Juno turns to smile at Caitlin, everything starts spinning.
Natalie...she was working touncovercorruption. She's not the criminal here.
But as I grasp for explanations, the reality of our situation crashes down on me. Natalie and I have been breaking about a dozen laws these past few weeks, and certainly whatever professional ethics the FBI would have around consorting with suspects.
And then there's Sam Wright. I recall his threat to me the other morning.You'll regret this.
Well, I am now. But Natalie seems to be the one who's paying the price for my humiliation of him.
Oh, God.Natalie.
A wave of fear threatens to pull me under. I force air into my lungs, clinging to the last frayed threads of my composure.
"That's impossible," I rasp out. "Where are you getting this information?"
Juno shrugs, but Caitlin has sobered, fixing me with those knowing, cornflower-blue eyes. "One of my Capos mentioned it earlier this afternoon. Apparently the FBI is keeping it all very hush-hush for now. But you know how news travels."
I slide off my seat and turn abruptly, nearly knocking my drink over. "I need to make some calls."
Juno snags my wrist before I can flee. "Alessa," she says, surprised, "what is it? I thought the news would make youhappy."
Caitlin rolls her eyes. "Juno, I love you, but you're an idiot. Let Alessa go. Or better yet, go and help her."
Juno looks between Caitlin and me, confused. But when Caitlin leans in to whisper in her ear, Juno's eyes go wide with shock.
"Are youinsane?" she just about shrieks, turning on me.
"Juno," Caitlin says sharply, as I yank my wrist out of her grasp.
"If you're not going to help, at least get out of my way," I snarl, and stalk off. But Juno strides along with me, hurrying as much as I am.
"Alessa, you need to be careful. I know you and this Natalie...got close. But she's afederal agent. You don't know where her true loyalties lie."
Her words echo my worst fears. That in the end, Natalie's sense of duty will win out over her feelings for me. That this has all been part of an elaborate long con to keep me from rebuilding my empire.
