Page 88 of A Secret to Die For

“Don’t talk about him that way.”

“What can you remember about the weeks leading up to the crash? Specifically the period after your mom’s boss died? Was she away from home more than usual? Did any strangers come to the house?”

“She always worked late. Sometimes Dad would complain about it, but he knew she loved her job. He painted, and I spent half my time at Marcin’s place because we were practising for a big competition and they had more space. His mom and my dad used to take it in turns to drive us to dance classes.”

Now Luca joined in. “We need to find out who else worked in Colvin’s office with Claire. How many staff does a senator have?”

“I’ll look into it,” Blue said.

“This is a police matter now.”

“How are you going to stop me?”

“If you interfere in an ongoing investigation…”

Brooke threw up her hands. “Stop! Just stop fighting. Sara’s traumatised, and you’re not helping.” She took a seat next to me. “Sara, we need to get to the bottom of this. Burying it worked for years, but I don’t think that’s an option anymore. The best chance we have of preventing someone else from getting hurt is to stop these people, and we really, really need your help for that.”

“But I don’t know anything.”

“There might be some little snippet of information that you don’t even realise is important. Just talk Luca and Blue through your life. That’s all you need to do.”

That’s all you need to do. Did she understand what she was asking? That digging the slivers of my past out of the grave I’d buried them in would leave damage I couldn’t repair? A scar was better than an open wound. But I had to do it, didn’t I? It was the only way to get out of this mess.

“What if they come after more people?” I asked.

“They can’t kill all of us,” Luca said.

“Are you sure about that? I don’t want blood on my hands.”

“We’re doing this with or without your help, Sara.”

“Fine.” I heaved out a sigh. “Fine, I’ll do it, but I need to find somewhere safe to stay first.” Maybe Poland. “I can’t go back to the pool house.”

“Stay here with me and Brooke until we get this cleared up.”

“That could take months. Years. What if we never—”

The buzz of the intercom interrupted, and the others looked at each other.

“You expecting anyone?” Luca asked Brooke, pulling out his phone. They had cameras here, alarms on every door and window, and there was an app that controlled them all.

“Paulo said he’d bring cookies at lunchtime, but it’s only eleven o’clock.”

“It’s a guy I don’t recognise,” Luca said, tapping at the screen. “Stay here.”

At least he hadn’t told me to hide in the bathroom. That had to be a good sign. And there were no gunshots. Five long minutes went by, five minutes where Blue wouldn’t let me leave the room and Brooke tried to make small talk that did nothing to calm my nerves. Finally, Luca came back with a stocky man in tow.

“Sara, this is Jack Morrow. He’s heading up your personal protection team.”

My what?

Jack Morrow held out a hand. “Pleased to meet you, ma’am.”

I just stared at him. “I didn’t… I don’t know you.”

“Mr. Dorsey hired us.”

Oh, no, no, no. He did not get to stalk me by proxy. “Well, I’m sure you’re a perfectly nice man, but I’m un-hiring you.”

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