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Officer King shakes her head. “I’m afraid I need Ms. Storm to come alone. We’re only going to take her to a private room in the manor. We won’t be long. She’ll be back in time for the next course.”

I draw in a deep breath to ease my panicking heart.

This is Bill all over again.

Except it isn’t.

Someone is dead. They clearly think I’m connected to it.

“Thea, don’t say anything without a lawyer,” Aus warns.

“I’ll be fine,” I say.

I will be.

I’ve done this before.

And this time I have nothing to hide.

I haven’t hurt anyone.

I grab my purse, stand, and give Aus a kiss on the cheek. “I promise, I’ll be fine.” I turn toward the cops. “Where are we going?”

“Just a private room in the back,” Officer King says. “It shouldn’t take long.”

“Okay,” I say. “Because I don’t want to leave my date waiting.”

Officer King and the other two lead me into a separate room. It’s small with a musty smell hanging in the air. An ancient mahogany desk sits at the room’s center, with a cushy leather office chair in front of it and three bookshelves behind it. The desk is littered with old paperwork and sticky notes, and two more chairs sit across from it.

“You can sit in the leather chair,” Officer King says. “I’ll sit across from you.”

“Okay.” I slowly sink into the soft leather chair. It would be quite comfortable if things weren’t so tense.

“All right.” Officer King takes out a small notebook and flips a few pages. “Are you acquainted with a man named Kinsey Blackwood?”

“Kinsey Blackwood?”

“He also goes by Kin.”

I blink a few times. Kin? The bartender of the East section at Jade Sanctum? Why the hell is this cop asking about him?

“I’ve met him once. He’s a bartender at a club I went to last night.” I slap my hand against my mouth. “Wait a minute. You said this was a possible homicide. Is he⁠—?”

Officer King nods gravely. “Yes, ma’am. He was found deceased this morning.”

Holy shit. One of Aus’s employees is dead?

“I’m…very sorry to hear that,” I say. “But why are asking me about this? It’s unfortunate that he died, but I barely knew the man.”

“We were questioning his brother, Wickliffe Blackwood, an hour ago. He told us he was with you, and we need you to corroborate that story.”

My heart eases. That’s all they want from me.

Of course, this means my not-affair with Wick will now be documented in a police report, but at least they don’t think I had anything to do with Kinsey’s death.

I let out a sigh. “Yes, I was with Wick last night.”

“The entire night?”