After Jack finished a few final items at the office, they took a cab to midtown, just as a heavy rain began to fall over the city. When the taxi pulled curbside, they shared an umbrella. Eva snuggled in close to him, seeking shelter from the rain.

The buttons on her blouse were open, giving him a perfect view of her cleavage. He inhaled the heady mixture of her apple shampoo, rain, and sex, while trying his best to forget the past hour.

She wasn’t making it easy. In ten years at that office, he’d never had an experience like that. He doubted he’d ever be able to look at those four dull walls the same way. He was hard, ready for another round.

Down boy. She’ll be in your bed tonight. Just wait.

The office for Max Coby, Private Investigator, was small and unpretentious, sandwiched between a travel agency and a pet supply start-up. They stepped into a small dark waiting room. Eva fluffed her wet hair as she crossed the space to the receptionist’s desk, then peered behind the glass. “No one here,” she said.

Jack set his raincoat on a hook and looked for himself. “Hello?”

“Oh, hey there. I’ve been expecting you.” A low voice came from nowhere, speaking a mile-a-minute. “I’m just finishing up a few things. Always have a few things to finish it seems.”

A door opened, and a man with silver hair wearing a gray sweat suit came out. “You’re Jack?” he asked.

When Stella said that no one would mess with Max Coby, Jack had envisioned someone big, tough, and intimidating. The man in front of him was small, wiry, and grandfatherly.

He shook Jack’s hand with a firmer grip than expected and turned to Eva. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Eva. Come on back.”

He led them to an office that was positively overflowing with paper—on the walls, the chairs…every surface. As he slid behind his desk, nearly getting lost in the sea of paperwork, Jack turned to inspect the photos on his wall. It was crowded with pictures of Max with famous people, and articles about Max’s heroism. Apparently, Max had been NYPD during 9-11.

“You were at the Towers?” Jack asked, scanning the article. A younger version of the man was there with Mayor Giuliani, receiving an award.

“Oh, yeah. Yeah,” he said, waving it off humbly. “Had to retire right after that due to the ol’ lungs. That’s what brought me here. Been doing this for twelve years.”

Eva sat down on the chair that was offered to her and studied the pictures on his desk of smiling, pig-tailed kids and a golden retriever. She smiled. “Grandkids?”

He looked at the pictures and laughed. “Great grandkids. I’ve got two of them. They keep me young.” He laced his hands in front of him, getting down to business.

Jack opened his mouth, prepared to give him the run-down, when Max said, “I’ll get straight to the point. This is an interesting case. I usually leave the office by noon so I can have lunch with my wife in Jersey and get in a round of golf. I don’t often consent to staying any later than that, but let me tell you…this is interesting.”

Jack crossed his arms, doubtful. “How so?”

Eva piped up. “I’m sorry, I thought we were here for a consultation. I didn’t realize you’d already been told the facts surrounding the case.”

“Well, my dear. I don’t like to go into any meeting blind, so I did a little research, and I consulted some of the officers handling the break-in investigation.” He lifted a manila folder from the top of his pile and opened it. “I understand that the two of you are heavily invested in the Fiorini Group?”

Eva looked at Jack. They both nodded.

“Well, the thing that concerns me the most about the break-in is that it wasn’t done by a petty thief, that’s for certain.” He patted a heavy stack of papers in the file. “There are no signs of breaking and entering, so they’re pretty sure the intruder used a key to enter the apartment.”

“A key?” Eva shook her head. “But they couldn’t have. I’m the only one who has a key to my apartment. I’m sure of it.”

Jack rubbed at his five o’clock shadow. “Are you? No ex-boyfriends who might want to—”

“No,” she said certainly, arching a brow in Jack’s direction. “I’ve never given a boyfriend the key to my place.”

Max said, “The building owners have a key as well, I’m sure.”

“Well, of course,” Eva said, forehead wrinkling. “So what are you saying?”

Jack sighed. “He’s saying someone could have gotten access to their key somehow and made a copy. So it could be anyone.”

“Not necessarily.” Max lifted a hand. “They’ve been reviewing the tapes provided by the security company, and this is where it gets really interesting. That is some heavy duty security system you have, Miss.” He gave Eva a grandfatherly smile. “But the intruder bypassed it easily because he had the code.”

Eva’s jaw dropped. “What? But that’s not possible.” She held up her finger. “It’s a fingerprint scanner. And last I checked, I have all my fingers.”

“And the intruder set off the alarm,” Jack pointed out.

Max nodded. “I’ll get to that. But code, fingerprint, it doesn’t matter to these people. Likely, they picked up a print of yours somewhere, recreated it from ballistics gel, and mounted it onto a latex glove. There isn’t a security system out there that hackers can’t infiltrate with the right tools and know-how.”

Eva stared at Max in horror before shifting her gaze to Jack. “But the alarm…”

“He set off the alarm as he was leaving,” Max said. “On purpose, after he’d wandered all over your apartment, poking his nose in every nook and cranny. This guy wanted you to know that he’d been there. He wanted to scare you.”

“Well…” Eva folded her hands in her lap. When she spoke again, her voice was faraway. “Yes. You’re right. That is interesting.”

More than interesting. This person—whoever it was—sounded downright diabolical. “Someone followed her today,” Jack added, shifting in his seat. “He chased her in broad daylight.”

Max leaned back and nodded. “Well, that doesn’t sound like a petty criminal, does it? This person doesn’t seem afraid to take chances. Do you have any enemies, Eva?”

Eva spoke without hesitation. “No. Not at all. No one.”

Jack exhaled. He knew Eva had never met a person she didn’t like, and she was kind to everyone. Personally, Eva hadn’t an enemy in the world.

But when it came to the Fiorini Group, one could never tell. With all the upheaval lately in finding a new CEO, and the potential takeover, there was a lot to be concerned about. Eva had never gotten involved in the business, so she knew very little about what dangers lurked there.

“Not personally, no,” Jack added. “But professionally…maybe. Eva’s largely isolated herself from the family business, but I’ve had concerns. The Fiorini Group has its enemies.”

Eva turned to him, a question on her face. “You never told me that.”

“I’ve seen the articles, about the rumors of a takeover looming in the near future.” Max shifted some papers in the file and picked up some honest-to-goodness news clippings from Fortune magazine and the New York Times. “Seems that a closer look at the Fiorini Group’s enemies could be a good place to start. You have names?”

Jack shook his head. “Just rumors. Nothing concrete.”

Eva was still staring at Jack, a mixture of hurt and fear on her face. “Jack, how could you even think that? Dad and Antonio were two of the most honest men in business. My father was practically a saint. What kind of enemies could they have made? Are you sure about this?“

Max held up two more articles, photo-copied. Jack caught the headshot Antonio had taken for a seminar two weeks prior to his death, and his pulse raced. The obituaries. “Your father and brother died under suspicious circumstances,” Max said. “Didn’t they?”

“No, they weren’t suspicious,” Eva protested, jumping to her feet. She started to pace behind them. “Tell him, Jack. Tell him what happened.”

Jack didn’t answer right away. Before, it had been easy to explain her brother’s and father’s deaths as terrible accidents, nothing more. But now, with this psychopath after Eva…?

Now, there wasn’t much doubt left in his mind. Someone seemed intent on wiping every last Fiorini off the planet. She had to see that. She had to know she was in danger.

“Eva, I don’t believe in coincidences,” he said gently. “And it’s time you stopped believing in them, too.”

“Dad was not…Antonio was not…” She shook her head. “They weren’t…murdered. They can’t have been.” She clutched at her chest, and her shoulders slumped. “Oh, God. This can’t be true, Jack. Can it? Who would do that?”

“I don’t know,” he said, wishing he could hold her, but not sure she would want that in front of Max. “But we’re going to find out.”

She slowly walked back to her seat and collapsed into it, head down. She swiped at her eyes, and the next time she spoke, her voice cracked. “All right. Assuming it might be true, what do we do?”

“We put twenty-four-seven security on you, as soon as possible,” Max said.

She looked up, and Jack saw the tears in her eyes. “How will that work?”

“I’ll have a man sent to your building tomorrow morning,” Max said, matter-of-factly. “He’ll accompany you wherever you need to go, and stay outside your office when necessary.”

“This is insane.” A panicked laugh bubbled from between her lips. “My own private bodyguard? Everyone in my office is going to think I’m out of my mind.“

“Better safe than sorry,” Max said with a smile. “Now, you two go on home and try to take it easy. I’m going to dig into things a little more, and I’ll keep you up to date on any findings. All right?”

When they left the office the rain had stopped, but Jack had never seen Eva’s face look quite so stormy. They decided to walk the few blocks to his apartment.

“I can’t believe that you think that,” she said as they walked down the street. “About Antonio and Dad and the company. Who do you think is responsible?”

“I don’t know.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. “You know Leonard said something about the rumored takeover coming from the inside. But whoever’s behind it is a complete mystery—some group called Orion Industries that seems to have formed from thin air. I can’t find anything on them, but something shady is definitely going on.”

“Oh.” Her voice seemed deflated. “I wish you had told me what you were thinking.”

“I didn’t see any sense in you worrying unless there was something to worry about. You’re angry?”

“No. I’m…” She shook her head. “I don’t know what to feel. I guess I want to just run away.”

She slipped her hand into his. It was ice cold. He looked down at her face. He’d seen it a thousand times, but never before had she looked so beautifully fragile.

“Then let’s run,” he said. “You and me.”