They’ve moved from outside the door, but I can still hear voices.

Sniffing at my tears, I pull in a slow breath, trying to calm my thundering heart and hear above my internal chaos.

Easing the air between my lips, I suck in another lungful through my nose and slowly start to regulate.

I tip my head to the side and strain to hear the conversation.

It’s coming from somewhere to my left. Shuffling along the couch, I inch toward the murmurs until I find a good spot where the muffle becomes a little clearer.

I squint as I concentrate on making out the words.

“I know you don’t want to do this … can’t give you up … the only choice we have is to eliminate her.”

“Who do we use this time? We can’t…”

I miss the next part, frowning as Mayor Carter’s voice drops too low for me to hear.

“My brother will help me if I ask him to. His money and threats worked last time … warned Barlow what he’s capable of.”

“Barlow paid him … debt settled. He’s not going to push his luck … won’t want anything to do with Chloe’s disappearance … stupid to take on a cop like him.”

“Well Donny’s due back tomorrow … clean up this mess today.”

“Her family will already be looking for her.”

“So we need to move fast, then.”

“What are you proposing?”

“We could just make her disappear…sell some kind of runaway story.”

I flinch. As if, lady!

“It’s not her style. The Barlow family sticks together. They’re close.”

I guess the mayor is a little more observant than I thought. Holden suddenly flashes through my mind, sending a piercing sadness right through my core. I can’t believe his dad is plotting my death right now. Holden’s going to be devastated.

“Well …” I lose Luisa’s voice completely then. It drops down to a small whisper until a few seconds later it rises again. “Stop shaking your head. It worked last time! The setup went down just the way we planned it. We can do that again.”

“Last time you stole Donny’s phone to send that text! It was an opportune moment. Your husband’s out of town right now, so we can’t do that again.”

“Maybe we could pin it on the Mendez brothers. Tomas has some solid connections in Brazenwood.”

“Tomas won’t want to get involved!”

“He’s my brother! He loves me. He’d do anything to help me.”

“And then he can hold it over you for the rest of your life. He’ll want to know why you’re trying to cover up another murder, and don’t tell me you can use the same lie as last time! Besides, he works with Donny now. Aren’t you worried it will slip out?”

“If Tomas knows how much I love you and how impossible Donny is to get away from, then he’ll help me! We just need to find someone to pin it on.”

“Who? Nick was an easy target. He already worked for Donny. You found his gun lying around, stole it, used it and it created the perfect setup. We barely had to think that one through.”

“Well, isn’t there some high school student we could blame it on? If we stage it right, we could say it was a date gone wrong or something. Does she have a boyfriend?”

My breath catches in my throat. High emotion is making their conversation loud and fast. But I’m not missing anything now.

I can hear every inch of their plan and I have a sinking feeling I know exactly who Mayor Carter is going to come up with.

“There’s one student at Armitage High I’d quite happily pin it on.”

“Are we talking about a certain Mancini?”

“It’s the most believable choice, but how do we lure him in for a setup?”

“Let’s try money…or maybe trick him into thinking we have some information about his brother. You said he was pretty cut up when Nick went to jail. If he thinks Nick’s innocent, maybe we could present him with the real killer.”

“I like it. That combined with his temper will be perfect. Let’s get him in here, fire him up until he loses it, and then see how much damage he can do.”

“Give him the right weapon and we’ll get the exact crime scene we need.”

“You’ll get him to do the killing?” Mayor Carter’s voice dips.

“Maybe…if we sell the story right. He doesn’t need to know that he’s killing Chloe Barlow. All we need to do is mask her, sell the lie, and get him angry enough to pull the trigger.”

No! Shit, no!

Tears burn as I once again start to wrestle with my bonds. I’m not letting them do this. They will not set Vincent up this way.

Surely he won’t trust them. Surely he won’t believe Mayor Carter.

But if he’s desperate enough…

His emotions are going to be right on the edge after he bailed on me last night. He’ll be eaten alive by guilt or frustration. And Mayor Carter’s right. He does have a short fuse, but surely it’s not that short.

Shit!

Rubbing my ankles together, I ignore the burn on my skin and fight to free myself.