“I didn’t kill Hendrix, Rosalie,” I say. “I promise.”
She blinks once. “It’s not like you have an alibi.”
I lean toward her. “I do but you’re not going to like it.”
She pales. “You were with another woman?”
I don’t want to lie to her, but I’m going to protect her from my world as much as possible. “I’ll give you the truth this time because we’re still new at this, but after that, you’re away from my business. Completely. It won’t touch you unless it’s in a way to protect you.”
Her strawberry-red lips purse as she moves her ear closer to my mouth. “Where were you?”
“Killing a guy named Howard Fissure,” I whisper. Her chin drops. “He was a drug dealer and a child trafficker.” Although I probably would’ve killed him anyway, considering I made a deal with Reyes and hadn’t decided to renege until it came to Ella.
Rosalie’s eyes widen. “I don’t want to know that.” Yet she looks relieved, anyway. The idea of me with another woman would crush her. I like that. We’re on the same page.
In addition, she needs to trust me. “The last thing in the world I would do is implicate you by using your letter opener to kill somebody, Rosie. You have to know that.”
She slowly nods as realization dawns in her expression. “Yeah, it’s from my office.”
“You need to figure out who got their hands on that.”
She shrugs. “It could be anybody. We have people coming in and out of the law firm all the time. If somebody wanted to set up one of us, they could have easily dodged into my office and grabbed the letter opener. I always leave it on my desk.”
“Has there been anybody new around lately?”
She frowns. “In fact, there were a couple delivery guys the other day I didn’t recognize, bringing stuff in throughout the offices.”
“You received a package?”
“Yes,” she says. “It was just a book I ordered, though. But, there’s usually only one guy, and this time there were two. I didn’t think anything of it.”
I blink and try to focus my gaze. The drugs are mellowing me, and I don’t like it. “I see. You have cameras, don’t you, in your office?”
“We do in the reception area, but not anywhere else,” she says. “I’ll get my hands on those and see who’s been in and out of the office for the last several days.” She blinks. “Blythe Fairfax was there.”
Does Blythe want revenge? I did reject her. “She visited you in your office?”
“Yes.” An odd expression crosses Rosalie’s face. “She wanted to talk about you and showed off the many amethyst rings that you bought for her.”
Amusement lingers just beneath the drugs in my system. “Are you jealous?”
A very pretty pink wanders from her chest up over her face. “Of course not.”
My girl’s jealous. I like that. “I never bought a thing for Blythe Fairfax. Not even dinner. She lied to you about the rings.” Her eyes soften, but Rosalie still looks a little panicked every time she stares at my bandage. She cares more than she wants to admit—even to herself. “I don’t like that you disappeared on me for a full night,” I say quietly. “Don’t do it again.”
Her pupils constrict. Even so, she leans forward to whisper into my ear. “Don’t kidnap my friend again.”
It’s a fair request. She’ll probably never know exactly what I just did for her friend, and then I realize, I didn’t destroy the source of the murder contract—I only took out the weapon. So, I try to think of the right way to tell her. “You need to warn your friend Ella.”
“Why, are you going to kidnap her again?”
“That’s as safe as she’s been in quite a while,” I say quietly, forcing her to place her ear near my mouth. I doubt anybody is listening, but why take the chance? “My former cellmate accepted a contract on her.”
Rosalie sits back. “How do you know that?”
I don’t answer.
She studies me for several long moments and then realization dawns across her angled face. “Alexei,” she breathes.
