Don't go

Daniel was already sitting at the back table of Crane Street Café, stirring his coffee as if it were an ordinary Tuesday.

"You came."

"You said you could save him." Amara stayed standing. "Talk."

"Sit. I won't bite." He pushed a chair out with his foot. "Richard Halloran wants Julian crawling, and I can make that stop. One call from me, and Richard backs down. I'm family. He'll listen."

"And in exchange?"

"You walk away from my brother. Quietly. By tonight." His tone was almost kind. "You break it off, I fix the Halloran mess, and the company stays standing. Julian gets everything he's ever wanted, and all it costs is you."

Her stomach turned over. It was clever, because it was almost reasonable.

"No."

"Think about it. He lost his board chair's trust, his biggest account, and his mother's forgiveness. How much more can he afford to lose for a woman he's known a month?"

"You don't get to decide that."

"No." Daniel smiled. "But I get to wait."

She stood so fast the chair scraped. "I'd rather lose everything standing next to him than save it by leaving. Tell Celeste I said so."

His smile froze. "Why would I tell Celeste anything?"

"You tell me." She heard her own voice go cool. "You were at a table with her two nights ago."

For a heartbeat, something flickered across Daniel's face, quick as a struck match. Then it was gone. "Coincidence. She's a family friend."

It sounded almost true. Amara filed it under probably nothing and walked out, pushing the little cold feeling at the back of her neck deeper down.

------

She almost didn't see the flash.

It came from the sidewalk, bright and brief, as the café door swung shut behind her. A man in a gray hoodie was lowering a camera. And beyond him, in the café window, there was Daniel standing at the table with one hand extended, as though he'd been reaching for her.

Amara stared. From where the camera sat, her face turned toward him, his hand outstretched, the angle made it look as though she'd been leaning in.

Oh.

Her phone buzzed. A text from Julian, sent at 10:14.

Where are you? Call me.

She was halfway through dialing when a black car pulled up to the curb and Julian climbed out, tie loose, eyes sleepless. He crossed the pavement in four strides and held up his phone.

On the screen was the photograph.

"It's fake," Amara said at once. "I mean, it isn't fake, I was there, but it's not what it looks like. Daniel asked me to meet him. He offered to fix things with Halloran if I left you."

"Why would you meet him alone?"

"Because I wanted to hear him out. I told him no."

"You told me yesterday you wouldn't go near him."

"I changed my mind. I wanted to see what he'd say."

"Without telling me?" His voice was low and strained. "Amara, my mother's in a café across the city, Richard Halloran's about to bury me, and I find out from a gossip page that you're having coffee with my brother."

"I'm telling you now."

"Because I caught you."

It hit her like a slap. She'd said almost the same words to him in his office weeks ago,she realized, and hated that he was using them.

"That isn't fair."

"Isn't it?" He raked a hand through his hair. "I want to believe you. God, I want to. But every time I look away, there's a photograph, a lie, or a Whitlock in the middle of it."

"I'm not lying to you."

"Then why do I feel like I'm the last to know?"

They stood there, a foot apart, with the cold street between them. She could see how tired he was, how scared. She wanted to put her hands on his face. She wanted to tell him about the text, the dinner, the cold feeling she couldn't name.

Instead she heard herself say, stiffly, "If you don't trust me, Julian, there's nothing I can say."

His jaw tightened. "That's not what I said."

"It's what you meant."

His phone buzzed again. He glanced at it, and his whole face changed.

"It's Celeste," he said quietly. "She says her father wants to see me tonight. She says it's the only way to save the account."

"Don't go."

"I have to."

"Julian."

"I'll call you." He said it gently, but he wasn't looking at her. "I need to fix this. I need you to give me one night."

He climbed back into the car, and it pulled away.

Amara stood on the pavement with her arms wrapped around herself and her phone buzzing in her hand.

She looked down. It was from Celeste, with no pretense at all this time.

He's coming to my suite tonight. Room 612, around eleven. Come and see who he chooses when you're not around.

Amara knew exactly who sent it and exactly what Celeste wanted. She also knew she was going to go anyway.