Page 15 of Throne of Secrets

“And if they don’t?”

“Easy. Make sure he’s dead.”

“Make sure no one finds the body.”

Her stomach clenched.

Her breath caught.

Her hands shook as she slowly scrolled back to the top, carefully reading line by line through the conversation her phone had captured.

Oh no.Oh no.

Her pulse pounded in her ears. Were they? Could they be messing with her? But they didn’t know she was there. Oh my God … they were planning a hit. Like a mob hit!

Her fingers tightened around the phone, a horrible weight settling in her chest.

Who was “him”?

She didn’t know. But someone was about to be murdered. Her mind raced.

Why would they be talking about something like that in a hardware store of all places? She blinked. Where did someone talk about things like that? A back alley? A soundproof room? Somewhere no one would suspect the conversation was about whacking someone? Somewhere like a small hardware store. Oh. My. God.

Her phone felt like a lead weight in her palm as she closed the app and set it carefully on her thigh. Her gaze drifted toward Ethan’s house.

He worked in security, right? Some kind of computer security private contractor thing. She had no idea what that meant, but security was security—and right now, she needed someone who knew what to do with this information. She could call the cops. Her instincts screamed that she couldn’t ignore it. But what did she even have? A recorded conversation. Not even voices, just the transcript of the conversation. No names. Maybe a description of the men she thought were the ones who’d been recorded, but she wasn’t sure. It could’ve been two other men. Or a man and a woman. She was so focused on the stain she had no idea if they were the same people she’d heard earlier when she’d parked her cart out of the way.

Could she recognize them again?

Yes.

Would that help? Who knew? Not her. She had no idea.What do I do?

The same thing she’d done every time she got in trouble for the last six months. Her heart pounded as she grabbed her phone and dialed Ethan’s number.

Voicemail.

Crap.

She swallowed hard, waiting for the beep before launching into what was, quite possibly, the worst message she’d ever left in her life.

“Hi, Ethan. It’s me. Star. Um, so, I’m not in any trouble.”

She paused.Oh God, that sounded suspicious.

“I mean, I’m not in any danger!”

Nope. Worse. That made it sound like she totally was.

She winced.

“But when you can, like, when it’s convenient for you, could you call me? Or come over? Again, I’m not in any trouble!”

Her face burned even though there was no one to see it.

“I mean, like, I’m not! It’s just that my phone … well, it recorded this conversation I want you to hear. Or, uh, read because it was transcribed by my phone. Anyway, could you look at it, err … read it?Gah.You know what I mean.”

She squeezed her eyes shut.Abort! Abort!

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