I got to Sylvia’s in record time.

Giselle showed up not long after and I met up with her at the hood of her car.

“What are the odds we find her here?” Giselle glanced up to the apartment complex.

Looking over my shoulder, I arched a brow. “Dead or alive?”

Giselle shared a look of concern and I knew exactly what she was thinking.

“Hard to say if Madam has been here or not.” My hand waved for her to follow me as we approached the building together with heavy feet.

As we marched up the stairs, Giselle kept checking over her shoulder like we were being followed. I kept my eyes on the parking lot below, anxious to see what waited for us inside.

I hadn’t been sure what we were going to find once we got here. My only hope was that Sylvia was alive and Madam hadn’t done what I feared she might be angling for. But I had seen Madam pick up Kendra, so if she had already come for Sylvia it was before … right around the time I put in an unanswered call to her this morning.

Giselle shortened her strides and stopped at Sylvia’s front door. She got up close to the peephole, but of course she wouldn’t be able to see anything. When she pulled back, she looked at me and shook her head.

Taking a deep breath, I nodded.

“The moment of truth,” she said, lifting her fist to the door, knocking.

Wiping the sweat off my brow, my legs were restless.

Despite me wanting to get Sylvia arrested for what I believed she did to Maria Greer, I didn’t want to see any physical harm come to her. We’d had our moments of friendship, and I hated that it had come to this.

Giselle held her breath and waited.

And as my heart slammed against my chest, I thought about Kendra and what Madam might be putting her through now. I was sure it had to do with Kendra meeting with Sylvia—what was said, who was mentioned, and all the details that Madam would want to keep secret. Madam would want to know every last thing that was said, multiple times, even if she knew them already. That was her style. I knew it better than anyone, and it did little to settle my stomach.

Another minute ticked by until Giselle finally looked to me and asked, “What do we do now?”

I checked to make sure the door was locked before reaching to my back pocket. I pulled out a collection of tools I had brought to pick a lock, anticipating I might need to. When I held them up to Giselle, her shoulders slumped as she sighed.

“Kelly, I’m not sure we need to add breaking and entering to our list of unethical business practices.”

“Sylvia might be dead inside.” I stepped closer to Giselle. “Wouldn’t you like to find her body first?”

Her head barely nodded.

“Keep on the lookout,” I said, getting my tools ready. “This should only take a minute.”

My fingers quickly worked over the lock and it clicked over. I glanced up to Giselle who was sharing a look of surprise. “Got lucky.” I smirked.

She gave me a knowing look. “Seems like you knew what you were doing. And, no, I don’t want to know where you learned that.”

I grinned and rolled up my tools before stuffing them in my back pocket again. Then I pulled out two pairs of latex gloves and handed one to Giselle. “Put these on.”

She took them and slipped her fingers inside. With our fingers covered, I opened the door with a racing heart.

Before stepping inside, I let my senses go to work. My nose checked for unfamiliar scents and my ears listened for sounds of life. There was only silence and familiarity, and that gave me the confidence to finally fully step inside and look around.

“You take the back. I’ll sweep the front.” I pointed in the direction I wanted Giselle to go. We did a quick sweep before realizing the place was empty. “She’s gone.”

Giselle’s smile was slow, and I knew we were both relieved to not have found a body. It was the last thing we needed now, but that still didn’t mean she wasn’t dead.

“Do you think she’s already fled?” Giselle’s eyes scurried over the walls. “Maybe she knew we were coming?”

“Or maybe she knew Madam was coming for her.” I turned on an overhead light and continued perusing the living room.

“Either way, she wasn’t ready to face either of us.”

Moving to the living room, I picked up magazines and internet news clippings from the coffee table. There were scented candles that hadn’t yet been burnt and various pieces of art filling the walls. It was a normal looking apartment home to a woman living alone. Nothing was out of the ordinary. No forced entry, no evidence she had left in a hurry.

But something about it still felt off.

“I’m going to take a closer look in the back,” Giselle said as I moved into the kitchen.

I opened the fridge and poked my head inside. It was half-filled with a half-eaten box of spinach and milk that was still good. Fruits, vegetables, and cheeses filled the shelves. Then I turned toward the sink to find dirty dishes that needed to be washed.

Perching my hand on the ledge of the counter, I stood, stared, and thought.

Sylvia had been here this morning. I knew it. So why suddenly leave? And who was she running from? Me? Or Madam?

“Kelly,” Giselle called from the back room. “Come look at this.”

Turning on a heel, I strode to the back of the apartment thinking how Sylvia let jealousy destroy her life. Nash was only one man, and I was sure he wasn’t her first. That was what made all this so frustrating to see. Sylvia couldn’t get over him. Even if what they had was only one night, she couldn’t find the strength to move on. And, in the end, it possessed her to kill Maria.

“Check this out.” Giselle pointed to Sylvia’s messy desk as soon as I entered.

I sifted through the mess.

“Looks like she’s been busy doing her research,” Giselle said.

Flipping through her many pages of notes, Sylvia had sheets of paper detailing Madam’s activities, the lives of her employees, and how her business was structured—including her guess to where Madam was working to expand her enterprise next.

My blood pressure rose as I lifted my gaze to the whiteboard hanging above her desk. It was color-coded and filled with lists. Next to it was a mind-map of names of individuals as if Sylvia was working to put together a hierarchy of who controlled whom.

Giselle stepped closer to the wall and tipped her head back.

Together, we stood in silence staring back into the familiar faces Sylvia had hung on the wall.

Madam.

Oscar.

Mario.

Giselle.

Me.

And …

Tonya.

The only difference between them was that Tonya had a red X drawn over her face.

She’s crossing off the people who’d been silenced.

“I think now is a good time to see if we can find anything to connect those notes you’ve been receiving to Sylvia.” Giselle turned her head and glanced up at me.

Without taking my eyes off of Tonya, I nodded and went back to digging through the desk.

It didn’t take me long to find our next surprise.

Sylvia had notes on Kendra’s parents. Where they lived, details of their family life, their financials, and an entire two-page spread about her uncle Marvin. “Shit,” I grumbled when I found a sticky note stuck to the back. This will get her to listen.

I handed it to Giselle to have a look. Her eyes quickly scanned the pages, and when she looked up at me she said, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

Rubbing a hand over my face, I mumbled, “I’m afraid so.”

“She’s been feeding this to Madam,” Giselle said. Her brow pinched when a new thought entered her head. “But why would Sylvia turn on Madam?”

I didn’t have an answer other than Sylvia just wanted to have a voice. To be heard. To be taken seriously. And after what happened with her and Nash Brooks it seemed like she’d lost her confidence, thought she was the laughing stock of the entire city and film industry.

Looking around, Sylvia had something to prove.

And I was still in disbelief at what I was seeing.

She’d been an ally. A person I could trust. Then, suddenly, overnight she’d become an enemy.

“She’s out to frame everyone she thinks is out to get her,” I said.

“I think you’re right,” Giselle said, handing me our next discovery.

Next on Sylvia’s list was Blake Stone—and her plan to direct the attention of what happened to Maria over to Mario. I wasn’t surprised to see his face. Especially since she was looking into Madam’s business interests. Stone was a key factor in understanding the bigger picture. But what I didn’t understand was, what was she trying to prove by collecting all this information on all of us?

Pulling open a desk drawer, my eye caught a familiar orchid flower.

Bending over, I took it between my fingers and brought it to my nose. I closed my eyes and inhaled the scent that was no longer there.

I remembered the day Sylvia had found it. Memories of my first date with Kendra filled my mind—and heart—remembering the way Kendra looked at me that night behind hooded, seduced eyes. Rubbing my fingertips, I could still feel the way her belly trembled against my touch. I smiled at knowing Kendra was a little afraid of me in the beginning, but let me touch her anyway. Then I shivered when I remembered the trigger I had sparked and how Kendra had left, leaving me with a plate full of fruit and half-empty bottle of champagne to pour down the drain.

“She’s going to publish her story, Kelly.”

I opened my eyes and rolled them over to Giselle.

“Put her spin on it. Make us all look guilty when it’s her who needs to be taken in.”

As I stared into Giselle’s eyes, nodding, I thought about Sylvia receiving death threats when looking into Maria’s murder. There was nothing here about those threats. The threats had stopped and I’d let it go, having to concentrate on Mario and making sure that I didn’t lose Kendra in the process. But now I wondered if her threats were real or if she had made them up to throw me off her trail.

“Sylvia must have learned something that didn’t sit well with her to have the balls to betray Madam.” Giselle thought out loud.

Turning over the trashcan next to her desk, I found the empty envelope Sylvia intercepted from Kendra. The money I had seen was gone and I could only assume that it was enough to hide out for quite some time before having to use her own money that could easily be tracked.

“Sylvia is alive and she isn’t coming back,” I said, holding up the empty envelope.

“Shit,” Giselle cursed. “Without her, Mario continues to take the fall.”

When I set the envelope down on the desk, my eye caught a familiar name. Pulling the hidden paper out from underneath the pile, I couldn’t stop staring at the heavily circled name. Drake Goodman. Turning it around to show Giselle, I said, “This is the guy you’re seeing, right?”

Tears filled her eyes.

“Why do you think Sylvia would be interested in him?”

Giselle shook her head. “I don’t know.”

I cast my gaze back to his name. “When’s the last time you spoke to him?”

“Last night.” Giselle lifted her head and pressed her palm to her forehead. “On the phone.”

Turning to look at her, I asked, “What does he do for a living?”

“Advertising.” She pulled her brows together. “Why?”

“Now, why would Sylvia need an ad man?” I flipped the paper over to show Giselle Sylvia’s notes. She had his number listed as someone to contact.

“I’m calling him.” Giselle pulled out her phone just as my own started ringing.

Pulling it out from my pocket, I realized that I had missed a call from Kendra. I cursed myself for not hearing it ring and answered the call from Oscar Buchanan. “If it isn’t LA’s finest.”

“Kelly, are you busy?” Oscar sounded exhausted.

“What’s this about?” My phone beeped. The battery was nearly dead.

“There is something I need to tell you.”

“Then tell me.” I looked to Giselle who was on the phone with Drake.

“I think it’s better if you hear this in person.”

Then my phone died.