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The quietness of her tone does nothing to shatter the tension.
Harry stomps to the window, checking the shade’s shut yet again.
Not that it matters.
These fucking trackers are still on me.
“It’s not right, something’s fucking wrong, Lena,” mutters Harry as Vicky stands in a position to the left of me where she can cover the door. She flicks a look at Harry who raises her hands and moves. “See, babe? I’m walking away from the window.”
“Safety, Harriet,” Vicky says. “Always.”
I’m not one for coincidence, and the phone that’s now on the coffee table, the burner, lays silent but on it’s the confirmation of the last piece.
Those earrings.
And they make me look long and hard at Hendrick’s ex.
“The picture of the earrings came through on my way here,” I say, getting up to look at them, where they sit on a piece of black velvet on the small dining table Harry’s got wedged in here. “So I want the story. From the beginning. And…” I go and stand over the beautiful brunette. “I want to know if Hendrick’s in trouble and what your involvement is.”
“Lena…”
“Shut up, Harry. I love you, but shut up. No way she turns up with the earrings when we couldn’t find them, when things are getting…”
I stop.
Weird?
Is that the word I’m looking for?
My chest’s tight and my throat raw from the emotion that seems caught in there.
Fiona looks at me. “Hendrick’s a grown ass man, Quinate. Dangerous. And…”
Oh, shit, of course she knows the mayor. Not because she’s a food writer or whatever she is. The girl is loaded. She fit in to allthose parties she attended with Hendrick when she was young because she comes from the same world.
These are people who don’t mix with other levels of society. Or if they do, they don’t take them to high end, glitterati parties.
But it doesn’t explain the earrings per se.
Sure, she told me she bought them at auction.
But why didn’t she hand them over to Hendrick? Especially when she knew enough about the mayor’s necklace.
“Why now?”
“I’m not sure what’s going on. Damon didn’t tell me.” Her cheeks turn pink, “Just that I should see Ms. Esterhazy. Hendrick tells me nothing. He knows I don’t like the organized crime side of his world. I’m from money. A lot of money, but as far as I know, it’s old money and my parents aren’t in the criminal world.”
A bad feeling rolls through me, making me edgy, a little sick, and a little too warm in the temperate setting of the apartment. It’s like my clothes are sticking to me.
Fiona slaps her hands on her thighs. “Hendrick asked me to attend that party, chat to the mayor. He wasn’t sure when he’d get there. He asked me to check out the mayor’s necklace, and I know the piece. That’s all. I don’t want to be involved.”
“Yet here you are.”
She nods. “Here I am.”
“Lena?” Harry asks coming up to me. “We should get the fuck out of dodge. This is the perfect time and you know it.”
I do. I feel it in my bones. But I also know something odd’s going on.
