Stepping foot inside my law office was a clear reminder what was on the line.

My career.

Everything I had worked my entire life to achieve.

Justice—and not just to those I represented, but peace of mind for me as well.

Mario Jimenez was a tough loss but I promised myself I would redirect that frustration and focus on going after Sylvia Neil and Timothy Parker. It was the least I could do for him. Though Maria’s death never left my mind, the fact that Tonya was now dead as well had me concerned that something bigger was brewing. And if we didn’t put a stop to it now, it was only going to get worse.

“Kelly.” Giselle came running toward me. “I’ve got coffee. Can I get you a cup?”

Looking her in the eye, it looked like she had already had an entire pot herself. Nodding, I mumbled, “Thanks.”

She skipped to the back and I could hear her opening and shutting the cabinets before pouring the liquid into a clean mug. I slipped my shoulder strap off my arm and placed my bag just on the inside of my office door. When she came back, I gave her a sideways glance.

“Okay. Fine. I’ll just come out and say it since I can see you’re already asking yourself why I’m at the office early, energized and ready to take on the day.”

“No,” I said, dragging my voice out nice and slow. Wrapping my hand around the hot mug, the roasted aroma hit my nose. “I’m not asking anything.”

She leaned forward and dropped her voice to a whisper. “I. Got. Laid.”

My brows shot high on my head. “You can tell John it’s about time.”

“It’s wasn’t John,” she said as I stepped around her desk and focused on a package that had been delivered. “He and I are finished.”

My gaze lifted up from her desk and found her with a silly smile plastered across her face. “Finished?”

She nodded as her smile grew wider. This seemed ridiculous. I didn’t need to know the details of her personal life. But maybe because I had been encouraging her to make things right with John she insisted I know that she not only was done with him, but that she had also moved on to her next conquest.

Suddenly, I was struck with the memory of Ty Lemon’s party. “The man from Lemon’s gala?”

“Yes.” She tossed her head back and laughed. “Drake Goodman.”

“What’s this?” I asked, exchanging my coffee for the delivered package.

“It’s the reason I called so early,” she said in her professional tone.

Eyeing her, I watched Giselle’s face pale and all I could think of was how Sylvia warned me that everyone looking into Maria Greer’s murder would soon be silenced. Feeling the package by weight, another thought struck. I had been so focused on thinking Parker was behind Tonya’s death that I hadn’t considered until now that maybe Sylvia’s warning included that of Tonya, too. Did Tonya know something about Maria’s murder and Sylvia had her killed because of it? It was possible, but my theory with Parker also made sense.

“What is it, Kelly?”

Turning the package over, I said, “We need to screen every delivery made to this office more carefully from now on.”

Worry creased her brow.

“At least until we can prove Sylvia isn’t just making threats without substance behind them.”

“Shit. I’ve already opened it.”

Pulling the tab open, I cast my gaze inside. Just what I needed. More photographs.

One-by-one, I pulled out a dozen different photos. All of which had Kendra’s face displayed somewhere on the frame.

“And you looked at all these?” I asked.

Giselle brought her hand to her forehead and nodded. “I should have waited for you.”

I shuffled through them again, taking note of the name of the salon in the background.

“That’s why I called so early,” Giselle said again. “It was my first time sleeping with him, and you know how guys get after the first time they sleep with somebody new. I had to leave early to throw him off, make him think that I wasn’t as interested as I am—”

Giselle rambled on as I continued to study each image. Kendra was holding something inside her hands and without having to look too closely, I knew it was a delivery she was making for Madam.

A pained expression moved over my face.

This was my fault. I did this to her. And as I stared at my Bella in the photograph, I remembered Kendra admitting to me that she wanted to get out of Madam’s contract. And now that Tonya had ended up like Maria, I too would like to see Kendra free.

“Kelly?”

Snapping out of my thoughts, I quickly glanced at Giselle.

“I said, who do you think sent these?”

Shuffling to the next photo in the deck, a sudden arctic blast hit my chest. All three of them were in the same frame. Timothy. Tonya. Kendra. Together in the same building. “Son of a bitch.”

Giselle stepped up to my side and I showed her what I was looking at. “What does this mean?”

“It all happened the same day.” I dropped the images to the desk and rubbed a hand over my face.

Giselle quickly plowed through the images. “Is Kendra all right?”

“She’s fine. I was with her last night. Kissed her goodbye this morning.” And have Maxwell with her now.

“Then what is it?”

I picked up my coffee and took a sip. “I blackmailed Parker to drop the charges with photos taken from the same day.”

Giselle sighed. “Are you sure?”

“Do we know the timestamp of when these were taken?”

She turned back to the images. “If we had the digital copies, yes. But not with these.”

“Then believe me. They all happened minutes apart.”

Giselle plucked an image from the center of the stack. “Who is this guy?”

Staring at Emmanuel’s face, I felt my gut twist my insides in two. “He’s nobody.”

Taking a dry-erase marker from her desk, Giselle circled his face and made a note to find out who he was.

This was all my fault. I made the first delivery to him at his warehouse, arranging Madam’s request of six figures per month to be laundered through his businesses. It made me ill to think that I didn’t see this coming. That it could be just a one-time deal in order for me to get the woman I craved. Of course it wasn’t. It never was that simple with Madam. She always had another trick waiting up her sleeve.

“Who sent these?” I asked.

“Anonymous.”

Reaching inside my suit jacket pocket, I was reminded of the note I’d found on my car when visiting Echo. “Take a look at this.”

“What is it?” Giselle’s spine straightened.

When I had the paper completely unfolded, I held it up for her to see.

She stepped forward, pinching the note at the corner, holding it steady while her eyes soaked in the words. Squinting, she repeated, “Look what you made me do.”

I sucked back a breath but was unable to fill my lungs completely. My nerves were raw as fear of what might happen next seeped into my pores.

Giselle fixed her eyes on me. “What the hell does that mean?”

I told her how I’d found it—and how it seemed to appear out of nowhere.

“Who do you think is behind this?” She released her pinched fingers and I folded the note up and placed it back inside my jacket pocket.

“Could be any of our favorite suspects. Perhaps Sylvia.” I took my coffee back inside my hands and sidestepped closer to my office door. “She knows we’re closing in on her after leading us astray with Nash. Or,” I paused to reach my hand inside my office, coming back with the photos Madam gave to me to use against Parker, “him.”

“Timothy Parker?”

Nodding, I said, “It’s possible he was the last to be seen with Tonya before she died.”

Giselle took a step back with her hands jammed into her armpits.

“Either way, someone is watching us.”