Rick muttered a curse under his breath, pulled an illegal U-turn, and made his way to the Beverly Wilshire.

They left the car with the valet and split ways when they entered the lobby. “You watch the elevators, I’ll check the garage.”

Reed took his place against a wall. With each ding of the elevator bell, his pulse hitched up a notch.

Ten minutes later, Rick sent a text. Not in the garage. Sweeping the common rooms.

With each click of the second hand on his watch, he knew they’d missed her.

His phone rang.

Unknown number.

“This is Reed.”

“She’s already gone.”

“Sasha.” He spun in a circle and took in the people in the lobby. “Who is she?”

“That’s irrelevant. You’ve made her. She won’t be back.”

“Why are you helping us?”

“Consider it a professional courtesy.”

“One you’d like payment for in the future?” He knew how this worked.

“You’re bright. Now please take that Neanderthal out of the hotel. There are more players watching than you’ve seen, and that poor girl doesn’t need to end up dead because she failed.”

“What the—”

She hung up.

Reed made a straight shot to the lobby doors, his eyes peeled for Sasha. He dialed Rick. “She’s gone.”

“Do you see her?”

“No. Meet you at the car.”

Later, sitting in the Tarzana home, drinking much-needed coffee, Rick was all smiles.

“Why are you so happy? We lost her, both of them.”

“I appreciate efficiency, and this Sasha chick . . . efficient with integrity.”

“We don’t know that.”

“Don’t we? You said yourself she was too smart to use a credit card in a bar or coffee shop. She stopped Sam from confirming Alliance, prevented someone on the inside who could potentially blackmail any number of people.”

“And ruin Lori,” Reed added.

“I don’t think your Sasha is working with, or for, Petrov.”

“I’m doubting that, too.”

“Yet she has all the information she needs to headline the blackmail list.”

“And she’s not using it. Why?” Reed asked.

“Holding it for future use? Her own needs . . . who knows,” Reed said.

“Who gains by infiltrating Alliance?” Rick asked.

“Sam and Lori need to be answering that question. They have the client list.”

Rick reacted to the ding on the microwave and pulled out leftover pizza. He dropped it in the middle of the table and reached for napkins for the two of them.

“You ready to tell us who you were working for?”

Instead of giving a name, Reed took a slice and wrapped the cheese that was melting off around his finger. “You’re smart. Who won when Paul and Shannon married?”

“Paul. And Shannon, in the long run.”

Reed bit into his lunch. “And who lost?”

“Senator Knight.” Rick lost his continual smile, chewed his pizza slowly as the information sank in. “I hate politics.”

“She’ll hire someone else.”

Rick ate half his slice in one bite, talked around the food. “By the time she does, the girls will figure out a way to make what she finds irrelevant.”

“The girls?”

“The women of Alliance.”

“Lori and Sam?”

Rick laughed, swallowed his food. “Sure,” he said, not really answering Reed’s question.

He knew she didn’t want to see him . . . or hear his voice. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t at least get a glimpse of her.

After he left the Tarzana home, he drove to Lori’s complex and parked across the street. He wasn’t there five minutes before his phone rang.

“I just need to see her,” he said to whoever was calling.

“Take a picture.” It was Neil.

He hung up.

Five minutes later, it rang again.

“Go away.”

“Listen, creepy dude.” This time it was Rick. “You’re not going to get her back by spying on her.”

“I’ll leave once I see her.”

“You have it bad.”

He tossed his phone in the passenger seat after turning off the ringer.

When her car pulled into the valet, Cooper jumped out of the driver’s side and turned directly toward him.

What are you going to do?

Unlike Cooper, Lori didn’t seem to expect him there and didn’t notice him staring from half a block away with a pair of binoculars.

She removed her briefcase from the trunk, along with a box of what looked like homework, and the bellman took it from her.

He could smell her if he tried hard enough.

Taste her if he closed his eyes.

And when she turned and walked through the doors of her complex, and all that was left was the heat imprint of her skin, Reed closed his eyes.

Chapter Thirty-Three

“I don’t have it.”

Petrov slowly rubbed the edges of his fingers against the Colombian cigar. “That isn’t the right answer,” he said into the speakerphone.

“I need more time.”

“You’re out of time.”

“Wasn’t it I who told you about Alliance? Wasn’t it I who led you to the lawyer in the first place?”

“The lawyer who is physically surrounded by security and cameras. A lawyer who has managed to tighten up one loophole after the other in less than a week. A paltry woman who is no longer the easy target you claimed she would be.” The cigar snapped in his hand.

“Another week.”

“Belinda, do you know what I do to people who disappoint me?”

“These things take time.”

“Four days.”

“Petrov!”

“Four. Days.” He ended the call and rang for his help.

“She’s a loose end. Take her out in three days, sooner if she makes contact.”

A half nod and his guard backed out of the room.

Petrov looked at the broken cigar in his hand before crushing it inside his fist.

All week long her head was buried in work. The evenings ended late, without so much as a skip through the Internet for a few minutes of mindless nothing. But Friday evening was cloaked in a lack of purpose. She had nothing to occupy her mind. At Sam’s insistence, Lori, Avery, Shannon, and Cooper boarded the Harrison jet and flew to Texas, where they met Trina at the airport.

Fall snapped the heat index into submission, making the transition from the dry heat of California more bearable.

Lori greeted Trina with a hug. “It would have been easier had we sent for you.”

“But not better,” she replied.

Shannon stepped in for a hug. “You look great.”

“Texas agrees with me, who knew?”

“Ladies?” Cooper flanked them, while Trina’s fulltime bodyguard walked in front.

They piled into the back of a Suburban and instantly started catching up.

“How is the oil business?” Shannon asked.

“There is so much to learn. It’s like school, only no one is grading me.”

“And the cowboys?” Leave it to Avery to ask about the men.

“They grow those here like trees.”

Avery did a little chair dance.

Shannon laughed.

“Leave me out of that,” Lori demanded.

Cooper finished with the luggage and took the front passenger seat before they left the airport.

“I’m nixing anything with a penis.”

Carl cleared his throat from the driver’s seat.

“Present company excluded,” Shannon said for her.

“We didn’t hear anything, ma’am.”

“How is all that?” Trina summed up the entire Reed fiasco with one overused word. That!

“Reed’s an asshat,” Avery announced.

Trina shook her head. “I don’t get it.”

“There isn’t any denying the facts. Reed purposely infiltrated the compound and gathered top secret information to use against us.”

Trina turned to Avery, concern in her eyes.

“Don’t look at me, I think she’s been binge watching Mission Impossible episodes.”

“Am I wrong?” Lori asked.

Shannon leaned forward from the very back seat. “But he didn’t use the information.”

“You’re defending him? His target was you.”

“I’m not defending. I’m pointing out the facts. You’re the lawyer and facts are your thing.”

“How about the fact that he slept with me to get information?”

The car grew silent.

Trina, who hadn’t engaged in any of the previous Reed bashing episodes, said, “He didn’t use the information.”

“That isn’t the point!” she snapped. “Whose side are you on?”

“Yours,” Trina quickly said.

“First Wives Club or bust,” Avery chimed in.

“Girl power,” was Shannon’s reply.

They all sat in silence.

Then, from the front seat, Cooper snickered. “I kissed my neighbor’s best friend just to get the other girl’s number.”

“How did that work out?” Carl asked.

“Ended up taking the best friend to prom.”