Page 56 of Silent Vendetta (Vendetta Duet)

Sean glared at the man invading my space.

He reached down and took my hand, walking ten feet from the front door, where Grayson remained a sinister statue, watching Sean’s gaze slowly take in every detail of my appearance.

“Are you okay, Luna?”

“I’m fine. But I’m swamped. My dad’s court date got moved up to Friday, so I’m in a mad scramble, preparing for it. I appreciate you coming to check on me, but I can’t talk right now. I’ll call you later, okay?”

“Luna, wait.”

The severity of his tone made me freeze. I turned around and looked at my longtime friend, remembering what he’d said to me the last time we spoke.

I was in the car on the way to work, about to get kidnapped by Franco and his men, and I had called Sean, stressing that Hunter was keeping something from me. That was before I knew Hunter was the Vigilante, but Sean had said he was out of town.

But just before he hung up, I had heard the “L” train in the background. Which meant Sean had been lying about where he was, and now here he stood, looking stressed as hell.

“There’s something I need to tell you.” Sean looked at the doorway where Grayson was glaring at him.

“What is it?”

“Can we go for a drive?”

“Can it wait?”

“No,” he said. “It’s important, Luna.”

I searched his eyes for a hint at whatever this was.

Sean rocked from his left foot to his right, looking from me to the mansion and then back again. “I lied to you when I told you I went out of town.”

“Why?”

“Because I didn’t want you to know what I was looking into. I honestly figured it was a dead end. I get a lot of bogus tips that I need to check out with cases, and I’ve learned over the years to keep some of that to myself. Especially if it will upset someone I care about, because nine out of ten times, tips lead to nothing. I didn’t want to hurt our friendship by making an accusation.”

“What kind of accusation?”

Sean bit the inside of his cheek. “I still should have told you I was looking into it, especially since you were fishing around…”

“Looking into what, Sean?” I tried to hide my nervous impatience.

“Luna, you encouraged me to try to find the identity of the Windy City Vigilante.”

Oh shit.

“I was on my way to meet with a source who said they had a compelling theory about who the Vigilante might be. Before I met with them, all they said was that it was somebody close to law enforcement, so I worried it was one of your coworkers or something.”

“But you met them.”

“Yes.”

“And they laid out their theory,” I said.

“They don’t have anything rock solid.”

Obviously, otherwise, they would’ve gone to the police with it.

“Look.” Sean guided me by the arm further away from the front door—the soft summer breeze contrasting with the hardening of his muscles, his veins bulging around his thick forearms as birds chirped warning sounds to each other. “Police are focusing on people with criminal backgrounds, but I think they’re wrong. I think whoever this is, he’s smart enough to know how to evade police, because I think this source is right: I think it’s someone who works with law enforcement.”

“You think the Vigilante is a cop?” I kept my voice calm to hide the hope that he was on the wrong track.

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