Page 2 of Shadow Operative

Rob Lesner. She’d met with the businessman for dinner at a restaurant to talk about a contract issue between his company and hers.

And now he appeared to be . . . dead.

Blood oozed from a gaping wound in his chest . . . and a bloody knife lay beside him.

Was this his place?

Who did this to him?

How had she even gotten here?

Nia glanced around the expensive, modern space. At the massive windows comprising the exterior wall of the living room.

The lights of downtown Miami stared back at her.

Her heart thundered in her chest.

She didn’t remember coming up here.

The last thing Nia remembered was eating dinner at the restaurant.

There was no reason she should be in this high-rise apartment with Rob right now. The two of them were business acquaintances and nothing more.

What should she do?

She had to find her phone. She reached for the pocket of her black dress. The device was still tucked there.

That brought a small touch of good news in a terrible situation. She’d slipped her credit card into the case and had left her purse in her car during dinner. That parking garage happened to be the same one she parked in for her job as well.

But where was her car now? Still in the lot where she’d left it? Or had she driven here—wherever here was?

Her gaze wandered until she saw a clock.

Three-thirty a.m.

Just then, a sound cut through the air—a manic, almost evil-sounding laughter.

She gasped and stepped back.

Until she realized it was a recording.

No, not a recording. It was . . .

Something lit up in Rob’s shirt pocket.

His cell phone, she realized.

Relief swept through her.

Without thinking, she reached for the device. Saw someone named Gage was calling Rob.

At this hour?

She quickly wiped her prints from the phone and put it back in Rob’s pocket.

She couldn’t just stand here.

Think, Nia. Think.

---