Page 4 of Whisper

“You owe someone an apology,” Grayson said. “But it isn’t any of us.”

Teo’s gaze hardened. There was a second when it looked like he was going to say something, and then Sofia walked into the dining room. She was wearing black leggings and a large white t-shirt that fell over her hips, the cotton fabric almost see-through. Her wet hair was tied up in a messy bun, strands of blonde on top of her head.

I couldn’t help but take in her appearance, admiring the curves of her body and the way her clothes clung to her. It was hard not to be affected by her, especially after what had happened last night. But I had to keep my emotions in check, especially around Teo.

“Morning,” she said quietly, taking a seat at the table.

“Good morning, sunshine,” Teo said.

Sofia looked at him for a second, then shook her head. “What’s on the agenda today?”

Right. Straight to work. If they were going to hash this out–and I hoped they were going to hash it out–it wasn’t going to be in front of us. It was also a little funny hearing her talk about this like it wasn’t a huge criminal conspiracy but rather a business meeting for any company, as if we sold landscaping services or planned wedding events.

“There are a bunch of things we have to talk about,” Grayson said. “But I didn’t, like, make an agenda…”

“That’s okay,” Sofia said. She looked at the beers on the dining room table, then grabbed her laptop, which was sitting closed near the drinks. “I can make one. First, where’s Sam? I thought you guys were going to have someone on him all the time. His safety is the most important thing to me, so…”

“Your brother is safe. He’s with one of our guys, somewhere extremely public. Kevin will put his life on the line for Sam without hesitation. When Sam’s done running errands, our men will bring him here. Remember, we want to make sure whoever is after us doesn’t think that we’re afraid,” Teo said. “We have people keeping an eye on him at all times. With a bounty on all our heads, we felt like it was more prudent to make sure there weren’t a bunch of people with a bounty on their heads around Sam.”

Sofia looked up at him, her expression softening. “Okay,” she said. “Thank you for that. Okay, so…the Sentinel serving me papers, the social media girl, and the man stalking us at Neon. In order of priority?”

“From least to most, yes,” I said.

Sofia opened her laptop and started typing out the agenda as we discussed. I couldn’t help but steal glances at her, her focus and determination written all over her face. Despite the dangerous situation we were in, there was something alluring about her strength.

When she finished typing, she looked up at us expectantly. “Okay, so what’s the plan for dealing with each of these things?”

Teo leaned forward, his gaze fixed on hers. “We need to deal with the Sentinel first. The article has already gone public, but if the Sentinel decided to go after you it’s for good reason. The work on the Orchid Strangler is a hell of a scoop. I can send the papers to our lawyer and he can represent you, but...”

Sofia’s gaze met his. “What?”

“He’s notorious, Sofia. As soon as people realize that you’re using this criminal defense attorney who is relatively infamous, that’s going to make any connection you have to the Blades even more clear. It won’t just be bounty hunters. It’ll be the general public. You’ll be...”

“What?”

“You’ll be seen as implicated in everything the Blades have done,” Teo finished. “Your credibility will be shot. Everything you’ve done will be called into question.”

“So maybe a different lawyer,” Sofia said. “If you guys are going to, you know, pay for it anyway.”

Sofia’s eyes darkened. She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed.

Teo shrugged. “Of course we’ll pay for anything you need,” he said. “That’s no question.”

“We can circle back to this,” I said. “We have to talk about Miranda Olivier.”

“The social media girl,” Grayson said.

“Right. Let me show you something,” I said. I grabbed my laptop, which was next to Sofia’s, and cast my screen to the living room’s TV. “So before we start, here’s her last video…”

Miranda Olivier, a pretty woman in her early 20s with dark-rimmed glasses and bleach-blonde hair, looked into the camera before she spoke. A dark bruise and scrape spread from her ear to her chin.

She stood in front of Neon, our flagship club, in the stark light of day.

“If you’re a regular follower of my channel, you know that I do these investigative vlogs every week. I try to shine light on the interesting and the weird things going on in the city,” she said, her words fast, her voice chirpy. “A couple of months ago, I did a deep dive on the mysterious author of that blog post about the Orchid Strangler.”

She made air quotes around the words “Orchid Strangler.”

“And I’m coming to you with a super meaty update,” she continued. “It took a lot of investigating, but I found her. The mysterious writer behind the viral article–she was, as some of you speculated, at Neon. Yes, that Neon. The famous club ran by the Mercy Blades. In fact, I’m pretty sure that it was one of the faces of the gang who did this to me.”

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