He sighed again and sank deeper into the down-filled cushions, as if the plush silence might smother his instincts.His cousin had always been the strong one.
Still...what if the strong one needed help?
Chapter 16
Azlyn pulled back deeper into the shadows, stifling her sobs as she watched Olivia’s lifeless body roll past.
“No,” she whispered, choking on the word.She wiped at the hot tears streaking down her cheeks.“This can’t be happening.”
Her best friend and business partner hadn’t just died.That vibrant, fearless woman hadn’t been struck down by some careless driver.Her life hadn’t been brutally snuffed out on a dark street like she didn’t matter.
“Hey – any witnesses?”a police officer called out.
“We’re knocking on doors, asking for doorbell camera footage,” another responded, voice clipped and professional.
Azlyn rocked her son gently, soothing his sleep-heavy body with one hand while raising the other to shield her eyes from the pulsing blue lights of the squad cars.Half a dozen cruisers clogged the street, their flashing lights casting eerie shadows over everything.The chaos of the scene pressed down on her, thick and surreal.
She wanted to shout that they were wrong.That Olivia wasn’t gone.That this was a mistake.
But the evidence disagreed.
The black body bag.
The muttered words between officers.
The softslamof the coroner’s van doors.
Each one drove the truth deeper into her chest.
The van pulled away, nearly silent in contrast to the thrum of voices and radios around it.
“Hey!”a nearby officer barked.“Where the hell is the driver?”
Another turned, scanning the area.“He was in the back of my cruiser—I was just about to give him a breathalyzer!”
Azlyn stiffened.
A low, familiar alarm rang in the back of her mind.She didn’t know what exactly triggered it—instinct, maybe—but she’d learned long ago never to ignore it.That flicker of suspicion, that whisper ofsomething’s off, had led her to every major discovery of her career.
And now it was screaming.
She had felt this before—stepping out of records rooms and into the glare of someone’s unwanted attention.The crawl of eyes on her back.The pulse of danger hovering too close.That same electric unease buzzed through her now, tingling beneath her skin.
Her fingers brushed gently over Griffin’s tiny diapered bottom as she held him tighter.She looked around, peering into the darkness beyond the flashing lights.She saw nothing.And yet...
The threat was out there.
Watching.
Shifting.
Waiting.
Something was very, very wrong.
In the past, she would’ve walked straight toward the danger, camera in hand, heart pounding with righteous fury.That was what she did.Olivia hunted the truth with a microphone, and Azlyn delivered the proof with a camera.They had exposed corrupt politicians, predatory CEOs, abusive leaders—anyone who thought their secrets were safe.
Not anymore.
