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The woman was notoriously a terror, except when it came to Colby.

My lips quirk. “That she would. How is Brandy doing?”

“She’s been off with her sister. She will be pleased with the news,” Colby admits, rubbing the back of his neck.

The door slams open behind him, and Orzo marches in. This time, he has traded the mud for—

“Is that sand? Where the fuck have you been?” But the typical blood is absent, and that fact leaves me more uneasy than I care to admit.

“Busy.” He slams his hands in front of me, on my desk. “He’s dead? Any trace back to us?”

“It will be hard. He had an allergic reaction,” I explain, going through everything we knew again.

“Pay the hitman. Hire them again,” Orzo pushes. “Let’s end this problem once and for all.”

“Any luck tracking down the location of…”

“The last name on the list?” He straightens, staring past me and out the window. The sun is attempting to shine through it now.

Reminding me I need to sleep.

“Not yet, but I will.”

There’s something entirely off about Orzo. An emotion he is exuding that I am unaccustomed to.

“Are you okay?” I ask, walking around my desk and appraising him.

At the end of the day, he is my cousin. The only family I truly have left in my inner circle.

I reach for him, and it is shocking when he doesn’t draw away. And when my hand lands on his shoulder, I find I don’t know what to do with it.

I pat him a few times appreciatively.

There’s a gasp behind us.

“Colby, you can go. Tell your wife I said hi.” I don’t look at him.

Convinced that if my eyes leave Orzo’s form, he will disappear. That this would all just be an illusion.

The sound of the door opening and closing does not pull me from this moment either. We stand in silence for a few beats, my hand remaining on Orzo.

And then he breaks the spell, spinning out of my hold, but doesn’t shove me aside. He instead stares into the depths of my eyes. “I found my good luck charm.”

He smiles, a bright glowing feature that blinds me.

And then he marches away.

Leaving trails of sand and confusion in his wake.

***

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-B.L.T.

I still haven’t slept, but I have closed the blinds behind me, and I lean back in my chair waiting for her to respond.

Why isn’t she replying? Surely she wants to get paid.