Page 57 of Coerced Queen

My smile is grateful.“I’ll call you an Uber.”

“Oh, look.”Livy raises an arm.“Here’s a cab.”

I make sure she gets in safely before I turn my attention back to Tersia.

“Here,” Tersia says, indicating the red carpet that runs up to a swivel door.

The doorman stands aside for us to enter.We walk through a marble lobby and go up the escalator to a bar on the second floor where Tersia asks for a table.

Once we’re seated, an awkward silence follows.

I clear my throat.“How’s Richard?”

She smiles before rolling her eyes.“Still playing golf.But I still love him.How about Sav?”

“He’s good,” I lie.

“Has he recovered fully?”

“Almost.”I force brightness into my tone.“He’s working hard on it.You know how determined he is.”

“I have an exhibition coming up in a couple of months.”

“I’m glad you have time for your art again.”

“You’re welcome to swing by.”She shrugs.“If you want to.”

“I’d love to.Where are you having it?”

“Oh.I have an invite.I just got a couple from my agent.”

She reaches for her clutch bag next to her, knocking it over in her haste.The contents spill out over the table, coins and lipstick running over the top.

“Darn it.”She catches the lipstick before it rolls off the edge and slams her palm on coins that threaten to follow the same path.“I left it open again.”

I help her to gather the items, handing them to her while she stuffs them back into her bag.

“I’m so clumsy,” she mutters.

My gaze falls on a strange key with a red plastic handle between the knick-knacks strewn over the table—a tubular, three-cylinder key.

I go still.My heart trips over a beat.It looks exactly like the weird key I found in the vault at the firm.With everything that’s happened, I almost forgot about it.I’ve been looking for a key like that and what it could open for months.

“I’m sorry,” she says, bundling tissues and hand sanitizer in her bag.“I do this all the time.It’s very annoying.”

Trying my best to keep my voice normal, I pick up the key.“This is a strange-looking key.”

She lifts her head, pausing in collecting loose change.“That’s Richard’s.It’s for the locker at his golf club.He forgot his sports bag there, and he asked me to pick it up and wash his shirt and towel.”She wrinkles her nose.“Imagine the smell of sweaty golf undies and wet towel if they’ve been in his locker for a week.”

I hand her the key, my pulse beating so loudly I’m worried she can hear it.“That’s definitely something you want to avoid.”

“I was planning on going this morning, but then my agent called.”She sighs.“I’ll have to make a trip out there this afternoon, and I was hoping to spend time with Mandy.I left her with the nanny, and I already miss her too much.”

“Is it far?”I ask, hoping to sound interested but not overly so.

“Southampton.”Finally having fitted everything back into her bag, she zips it up.“It’s not that far, but it’s definitely out of my way.”

“Shinnecock Hills?”

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