Page 52 of Sweet Sin

I clear my throat. “Hello, Leif.”

“Who is—” A pause for a few seconds. It seems like an eternity. “Falcon? Is that you?”

“It is.”

“Yeah, my dad said you were getting out.”

Leif’s father, Krister Ramsey, visited me in prison quite a few times. But Leif never did.

“Where are you? You still in New York?”

“As a matter of fact, I’m here. Home.”

My jaw drops. “You are?”

“Yeah. I just got married.”

Leif Ramsey got married? Not too big of a shock. His blond good looks always had the ladies in a twitter. He and I were like night and day, literally.

“I suppose you’re wondering why I’m calling,” I say.

“No congratulations?”

Is he fucking serious? He didn’t get in touch with me at all while I was in prison.

“Sure, whatever. Listen, I—”

“Look, I should’ve visited, man. I was overseas a lot of that time, and—”

“I don’t want your apologies, Leif. I can’t take it right now anyway. What I need is your help.”

Another pregnant pause, and then, “I’m listening.”

“I—”

“Wait, wait. Before you say anything more, I just want to tell you how sorry I was to hear about Raven.”

Man, I really can’t go there now. “Raven’s going to be fine.”

“Yeah. I hope so. I heard you donated bone marrow.”

This line of conversation has to end. If I let myself think about Raven, I’ll go soft. “Listen, there’s a lot we could talk about. Like I could try to find out why Eagle’s hanging around Scarlett.”

“Eagle’s hanging around Scarlett?”

“Damn, do you know what your family’s doing, Ramsey?”

“Hey, you just—”

“Save it. This isn’t what any of this is about. I’m going to need some help. I know you’ve been doing security and investigative work for the Wolfe family in New York. I’m thinking I need to hire you.”

“What for?”

“There’re some things I need to tell you, but I can’t say them over the phone. Can you come to my place? We’ll talk outside.”

“You don’t think your place is safe?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. But I want you to have a look. You’re trained in detecting surveillance, right?”

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