LOGINConrad's POV…
Hours crawled by until Toby, a friend and personal private investigator, stopped by my office. “What took you so long?” I whined as he lowered himself on the couch close to the giant shelf adjacent to the door. “I was busy. That's what took me so long,” he retorted, turning on his laptop. I couldn't help but sigh. He owned a busy security company that provided security services for most wealthy people in our circle. ALeona's POV...The boardroom at Moore's was on the third floor, a long room with pale wood paneling and a table so polished I could see the ceiling lights reflected in it. Rafael sat at one end, her reading glasses pushed up into her dark hair, a folder open in front of her. Zach sat at the other end with a legal pad and a pen he kept tapping against the edge of the table.Neither of them smiled when I walked in.“Sit down, Leona,” Rafael said, almost commanding.I took the chair across from her. Rafael folded her hands on the table. Her voice was calm, professional, and completely unfriendly.“We received a call from a gallery in Dallas this afternoon. They wanted to know whether one of our artists had been sending her work out of state without authorization.”“I didn't send anything,” I responded immediately after his last word left his mouth.“No?” Zach's pen stopped tapping. “Then how did your seascape end
Leona's POV…The rival gallery sat on the far side of the Design District, a glass box of a building with white walls, polished concrete floors, and a single enormous sculpture of twisted steel in the lobby that looked like it had been designed to make visitors feel small. The air inside was cool and smelled of lilies and money.Alicia walked beside me, her heels striking the floor in short, furious taps. She had not stopped talking since we'd left the Moore's studio without informing anyone where we were going, a steady stream of threats and theories and words I wouldn't have repeated in front of my mother.“If that woman lays one finger on your painting, I'll have her license revoked before she finishes blinking,” Alicia swore.“Let's just look first.”“I am looking. I'm looking at the marble and the lilies and the pompous little receptionist who thinks she's the Queen of England.” She lowered her voice as we crossed the lobby. “Do
Leona's POV…Alicia's kitchen smelled of burnt toast and the orange peel she'd been picking at while she waited for the kettle. Sunlight poured through the window above the sink and spread across the counter in a warm, uneven square, catching on the crumbs and the chipped blue mug I'd left by the fruit bowl the night before.I came down the stairs slowly, still wearing yesterday's blouse, my eyes gritty from a night of staring at the ceiling. I texted Alicia back at seven with a single word, 'Coming,' and then sat on the edge of the bed for another twenty minutes, trying to decide what I was going to say.I still hadn't decided when I reached the kitchen doorway.Alicia was sitting at the table with her laptop open in front of her and a cup of coffee going cold at her elbow. She didn't look up right away. Her fingers were moving across the touchpad, scrolling slowly, her brow pinched in the way it always pinched when she was reading a contrac
Conrad's POV… The city was waking up beyond my office windows, slow and gold. I had been standing at the glass since six, a cup of black coffee cooling in my hand, watching the skyline shed its shadows one building at a time. I hadn't slept, and I had stopped pretending I would. When the knock finally came, I didn't turn around right away as though I knew who it was. “Come in.” Toby walked in carrying a thick manila folder under one arm and a paper bag from the bakery on Fifth. He set the bag on the edge of my desk without any comment, then dropped the folder beside it with a dull thud that seemed to echo in the quiet room. “Croissant,” he said. “You look like you need sugar and a reason to stay upright.” “I don't need sugar.” I shook my head and finally turned to face him. “You're going to eat it anyway, so don't be dramatic.” He dropped into the leather chair, stretched hi
Leona's POV…The shower was running somewhere down the hall, a steady drumming against tile that filled the apartment with white noise. Gael had kicked off his shoes at the door, tossed his keys into the bowl by the entryway, and announced that he needed ten minutes to wash the day off. Ten minutes had already become twenty.I sat on the edge of his white leather couch with my hands folded in my lap, trying to look like a woman who had nothing on her mind but the cooking show playing softly on the television.I had already decided I wasn't going to look at anything. I was going to sit still, breathe slowly, and let the evening pass the way every evening with Gael had passed for two years: pleasant, easy, and empty of anything that might make either of us uncomfortable.Since he came to Texas, this was my first time coming to his apartment.Then…his phone buzzed.It lay face up on the coffee table beside a half-empty glass of
Leona's POV…Gael's apartment was on the twelfth floor of a glass tower, the kind of place with a doorman who smiled too much and an elevator that smelled faintly of expensive cologne. He'd rented it three months ago, he said, because it was close to his clients and it had the best view in the city.It had the view. It didn't have much else.I sat on the edge of his white leather couch, my bag at my feet, and looked around the living room. Pizza boxes were stacked on the kitchen counter beside a half-empty bottle of whiskey. A pair of sneakers lay abandoned beside the door. Papers covered the dining table, some stacked in neat piles, others scattered across the wood as if someone had been searching for something and given up halfway through. A stack of unopened mail sat beside a laptop that was still charging, its cord snaking across the floor.He'd texted me an hour earlier that he was stuck at work and he was sorry







