a Car

l. My body knitted itself back toge

I flinched. Every time I saw a man with dark hair

the hidden clinic,

n, hands clasped tightly in front of her. Olivia Car

logetically. Olivia h

old lipstick that felt heavy on my mouth. I practiced a new smile in the

ning. She was the arch

, tossing a thick binder o

he same bank Ethan used for his dirty money. A lease on a small apartment in a

erfect,

ith a grin. "But it's solid. My

?" I asked

He declared himself Capo yesterday. The Commission is wa

money,"

ather built to fund drug routes. He's sloppy, Ava. He th

the encrypted drive where we stored the data from the r

said, my voice cold. "He

s the

Let him think the ghost is gone. Then we st

re in Queens. He used to be a soldier for your grandfather. He

trust

p you safe while you build you

Another man.

sured me, reading the panic i

later, I

and a leather jacket-clothes the old Ava wo

stationery. It was cream-colored, heavy stock. The kin

as an accident, but we need to close the loop for Ethan. M

es about despair, about love lost

would understand. A line he had whispered to me the

h wind r

de we had. It meant:

ou were delirious," Maya sai

itive press of my thumb. "He'll read this and h

letter to May

plea

sunlight. The air smelled of exhaust and

Corner Bookstore, Que

yscrapers where Ethan ruled were j

a queen, either. I was the hand

e. The funds Maya had siphoned from Ethan's shell

d m

it reached my eyes. It wa

liere," I whispere

en. I was ready to bu

his past. He was about to learn t