Tia McBride walked away from the aging Brooklyn brownstone which Miss Kathleen Le Fleur called home. Shin Lu approached her from the car to look over the building. “How did it go?”

Tia turned to look up at the window which she knew was Kat’s apartment. “Not well.”

They turned to walk together back to Tia’s car. Shin Lu asked, “What do you want me to do about it?”

“Take it easy, just take it easy.”

Shin Lu frowned, a little twist on her tiny face. “People like that…they are a grave danger to us! The white woman especially, but I can take the man too!”

“I know you can, Shin Lu, I know. I remember Dartmouth.”

“Those Canadian commie bastards had it coming!”

Tia held her hands out to calm her assistant. “Let it go, Shin Lu. Carter Fields makes us a lot of money.”

“He used to. Now that he’s fallen from grace, he won’t be worth a dime. And he knows too much!”

Tia kept walking, talking a deep breath. “That’s not the kind of retirement plan we offer.” With a pause and a glance back at the window, she added, “At least not yet. I’ve got another way.”

“Well, well,” a familiar voice said, commanding Tia’s attention from the other direction.

Tall, distinguished Austin Fields stepped toward her, his ghoulish twins and snotty daughter behind him. Tia had all their profiles on record, and she knew how they all fit into the puzzle: the wayward black sheep Carter, and about her involvement in his life.

And she knew the power they wielded. To see them suddenly on the street was not a welcome sight, even with the formidable Shin Lu with her.

“Mister Austin Fields,” Tia said with a fake smile as the great man and his crew approached them. “Odd to see you here. If you wanted an appointment, you need only have called.”

Austin huffed out an unamused chuckle. “I don’t have any need of the services your company provides.”

“No?” Tia took one step closer to the siblings gathered around Austin. “I’ll bet Eric and Don Jr. here could use a good whippin’. They can call me Mommy if they like.”

Meadow sneered, “You’re disgusting!”

“And you’re an amateur.”

But it was Austin who held his hands out to calm the tensions. “Let’s all take it easy. Miss McBride—”

“Mizzzzz—”

Austin stopped, rolling his eyes before saying, “Ms. McBride, we’re here to see somebody on a private matter—”

“Kathleen Le Fleur, about how she’s fucking your son?”

Meadow shook her head. “Such language…nasty bitch.”

“My point is,” Austin went on, “that maybe we have a common goal, and if we can put our differences aside, perhaps we can join forces, achieve what we both want.”

Tia and Shin Lu both gave that some thought, casting doubtful glances up at the window now half a block behind them, turning back to Austin and his children with shrewd glances. Tia asked him, “And how much would that be worth to you?”

Austin and his children shared a knowing nod, Austin shrugging. “I suppose that’s something we can talk about…at another place and time.”

Tia took three sexy steps up to Austin and took his necktie in her hands, pulling back and letting it slide out of her fingers. “We could talk about a lot of things, Mr. Fields…in complete confidence.”

Tia strode past Austin, Shin Lu following behind her, not sparing the Fields kids her most venomous look. The twins actually stepped back, intimidated by her presence and power and rightfully so. But they’d given Tia plenty to think about, and her next move, whatever it was, certainly would be to her advantage.

Or she wouldn’t make it at all.

Shin sidled up to Tia. “Let’s take them out.”

“Shin, what is it with you and killing people? It’s too much.”

“These people deserve it. At least we should bring the old man in, get him in the dungeon on video—”

“Blackmail?”

Shin Lu shrugged. “Call it whatever you want.”

“That’s what my lawyer will call it, Shin Lu—blackmail. I don’t do business that way.”

Shin Lu stopped and turned, hands on her hips. “Maybe there’s something wrong with the way you’re doing business.”

Tia leaned forward, a pale and angry finger pointing. “Maybe you should think about who you’re talking to, Shin Lu.” The two women stared each other down, a tense silence twisting in the breeze around them. Finally Tia turned to walk toward the car, Shin Lu following. But both knew that wasn’t likely to last, and that with Tia in front, Shin Lu was well-positioned to drive a knife into her back from out of nowhere.

Things were changing fast.