Feelings of dread consumed me as I left my first meeting with Blake Stone.

And though I was left with more questions than answers, one thing was certain: I didn’t kill Tonya Craig.

And I certainly wasn’t going to let anything bad happen to Kendra.

Walking into the empty office, the soles of my shoes squeaked over the floor. Deep inside, I wanted to dismiss the source as unworthy, to act as if Stone didn’t know what he was talking about. But even I knew that I would be lying if I did.

My adrenaline spiking, I hurried to the mailbox on the far side of the office wall. Diving my hand inside, my eyes glowing, I was eager to see the article for myself. Having requested it only a short while ago, there was a slim chance it would even be here by now but I had to try.

My fingers worked through the stack of letters as my mind raced to think of what Sylvia Neil’s spin on the story could possibly be. She and I had once been friendly acquaintances but that all changed once I learned she was the one to have murdered Maria Greer.

Everything stopped when my finger landed on the glossy magazine cover.

My heart. My breathing. Even my ears.

Pulling it free, my eyes widened with anxious disbelief.

This was something I wasn’t expecting, and something I wished I could take back.

Slowly, I turned and dragged my feet into my office.

Fear seared my skin hot as I paged my way to her article—or should I call it mine?

With my neck bent, I jabbed my index finger on the first sentence and started reading.

This was what Stone was referring to—the reason he said my name currently held the media’s attention. And the further I read, the tighter my lungs squeezed around my heart.

Without taking my eyes off of the pages, I edged my way around my desk until falling into my chair. My head pounded with a pressure headache, and when I finished the article a minute later I tipped my chin back and blew out a heavy sigh.

Un-fucking-believable.

Normally I welcomed the attention. But not bad publicity. And that was exactly what Sylvia was giving me. This was a story that nobody would want told of them. But, for Sylvia, it was the perfect distraction to avoid arrest—shifting the conversation away from her and directing it to a new plausible target.

When I felt my arm begin to shake, I glanced to the tight fist I had formed on top of my thigh.

Grinding my teeth, I couldn’t stop myself from regretting how close we were to bringing her in but not yet finishing the job.

Staring out the window, a jolt zipped down my spine as a willingness to believe that everything would be all right brought my heels up off the floor. But when my eyes squinted against the last of the day’s light, even I knew that I should be feeling anything but optimistic about the situation I was in.

Turning my head, I glanced toward Giselle’s desk.

With each beat of my heart, I wanted to keep hope alive, to believe that Giselle would track Sylvia down before she disappeared for good. But the realist in me already told me that we were too late.

In a flash, I was lacing my fingers over my chest and thinking about my relationship with Madam. It killed me when Wesley Reid said he regretted not taking me under his wing first. And it was impossible not to blame Madam for all this.

She was the source.

The root of every drop of evil that rained down upon me.

My blood was hot as it coursed through my body keeping me bright-eyed and on high alert. Bending over, I opened my desk drawer. Reaching my hand deep inside, my fingers grazed the cold metal of my handgun. And I almost pulled it free—ready to use it, whether for self-defense or to end my own misery—but when I thought about Kendra I pulled back and shut the drawer, forgetting about it completely.

Diving my hand inside my sport jacket pocket, I pulled out my dead cell phone along with the crumpled note Stone had given me at County. Setting my phone down in front of me, I peeled the note open and let my eyes scurry over the letters.

Look what you made me do.

With nostrils flaring, I mumbled, “I didn’t make that asshole do anything.”

Closing my eyes, I twisted my neck to work out the stress kinks balling tight on either side.

It was Stone’s decision to have Tonya Craig killed. Not mine. My hands were clean, even if Madam had made me blackmail Timothy Parker with the photos of him and Tonya getting it on in the back of Emmanuel’s salon. Even still, the guilt found its way to my shoulders.

My pulse slowed to a crawl.

Stone had me worried and I feared that maybe I had taken on more than I could chew when agreeing to represent him. I didn’t like how much Stone knew about me. He had been watching me for far too long, and, worst of all, I hadn’t realized it. I had let my guard down and he would certainly find a way to exploit my secrets—whichever ones he knew about.

My eyes popped wide open.

Someone was working for him on the outside.

And I hadn’t the faintest idea who.

My muscles were tense and I was ready to fight as my heart raced with the adrenaline inside me. The more I thought about what was actually happening, the darker my mind went. It scared the shit out of me, and that was a rare feeling. But now I was completely unsure of who I could trust.

Rubbing my forearms, my nerves were raw.

The people I relied on most were now the faces I had to look at twice. They had all been cast in a new light since Tonya’s death, and nothing was as it seemed.

With a bouncing knee, my mind raced to understand why Stone had Tonya killed in the first place. It didn’t make sense other than he might have known she was one of Madam’s girls. And if that was his reasoning behind ordering the kill, then I could only assume he knew Madam was busy stealing the business he’d once controlled.

Casting my gaze to my desk, my eyes fell to my dead phone.

I needed to call Kendra, know that she was all right. Last I’d seen her, Madam had swooped her off the street and out of my arms. It all happened so fast, it was hard to keep my timeline of events straight.

It was one surprise after the other.

Getting chased by the paparazzi.

Running into her uncle.

Then having Madam swoop in and steal Kendra away just before I was off on my own quest.

Leaning forward, I plugged the charger into the wall and connected it to my phone. I watched the device begin to juice up and once it had enough charge, I put a call in to my woman.

The line rang as I lifted it to my ear.

My stomach was rock hard as I held my breath, saying a quick prayer.

Time stopped.

The room spun.

And I couldn’t stop my foot from tapping on the floor.

But when it kept ringing, I finally was forced to hang up.

Falling back into my seat, worry furrowed my brow. Pressing the flats of my hands together, I rested my chin on top of the steeple, feeling helpless. I didn’t know what Madam had planned, the reason behind Kendra’s abduction, or if Kendra was even still under her control. The only certainty I had was that Madam was losing her fucking mind.

I could feel it.

Hear it in her voice when she talked.

And with Kendra having made the mistake of giving away Madam’s money to Sylvia Neil, I knew that it would eventually cost us all. The best I could hope was that Kendra wouldn’t be the first to pay the price for the mistakes we all made.

Turning my head, my thoughts drifted to the District Attorney until I caught sight of Mario Jimenez’s case file on the corner of my desk.

Oscar Buchanan was definitely deliberately protecting Angelina Davis. I heard what he heard. And I knew it was Angel who had called Timothy Parker, telling him to leave just before Tonya Craig was killed. Though he wanted me to believe it was Sylvia.

My fingers stopped tapping as the crease between my brows deepened with thought.

But then why was Sylvia running?

I closed my eyes and dropped my head. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I shook my head at the dizzying tangled web of manipulation and struggles for power between enemies. It was enough to cause my own head to explode and when I thought back to what Giselle and I discovered in Sylvia’s apartment, it only froze my thoughts more.

Sylvia had notes on us all. A detailed cobweb of players involved—people she seemed to be seeking retribution against—what I had called her Kill List.

Rubbing my hand over my face, I could still see my name on it. When I closed my eyes, I remembered how Tonya’s name had been crossed off. And my gut knotted when I thought how Mario could now be crossed off that list as well.

But it wasn’t just them, or me, but Kendra’s parents, too. Even Blake Stone was on the list, which had me confused after hearing him admit his own involvement in Tonya’s murder. All the names weren’t surprises to me except for—

Drake Goodman.

Why did Sylvia have his name, and what did she want from him? My only conclusion was that it was her way at getting at Giselle.

I tipped forward and reached for my phone. I dialed Giselle’s number and prayed she would answer. When she didn’t, I left a message. “Hey. It’s Black. Just checking in. I need to know you’re okay. I have a bad feeling about Sylvia. I’m at the office. Call me.”

Setting my phone down next to the opened article, I pulled out the second note I had received, the one sent through Timothy Parker before he was brought in for questioning over Tonya’s murder.

Two down. How many to go? The choice is yours, counselor. Stop looking into the Maria Greer murder before another woman gets killed. The next one might be someone close to you. Watch your back and don’t believe everything you read.

When I heard the front door open, I shouted, “I just called.”

Waiting for Giselle to peek her head around and tell me that she’d managed to track Sylvia down, my heart stopped when my eyes landed on my Bella. Kendra’s eyes flickered to mine and she looked devastated.