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I’ve got to get out of here. I’m in Halo City to put Harvey away, not to hop on Armin’s dick as many times as I can.

Though would one more round hurt?

An SUV pulls up, slow. One that I recognize. My heart races.

Harvey’s.

My hand slips, and the coffee hits the floor in one splash, splatters my legs. My blood runs cold.

The SUV’s window slides down, and I catch an unmistakable glimpse of Harvey’s driver’s face. My heart beats ragged inside my chest.

He reaches out. He hands an envelope to Armin.

And he drives away.

I lean hard on the windowsill, weak all over, and I scan Armin’s face, trying to find what I missed. It makes a lot more sense that Harvey had gotten to him during those long, low-paid years when he was a small-town sheriff.

I search for the monster inside.

But I can’t find it.

All I see is the man I shouldn’t love.

It’s worse than a compromised identity. I have to get out of here. Now.

Armin opens up the door of his own SUV and I breathe a sigh of relief. I can’t face him again. At least now I won’t have to. I’ve got time to get it together and escape.

But then he slams the door shut and turns, empty-handed. He’s only dropped the envelope off.

He’s on his way back inside.

ten

. . .

Armin

It’s getting dark.I should turn on a light in here, but I don’t. Instead I turn the lipstick over and over again, the only thing she left behind.

Scandal, it says on the label.

I throw it across the room. It hits the wall and lands on the couch where I held her while she cried.

Two days ago, when she fled here, she wouldn’t even look at me.

God damn it, Mia.

Every time I think she’s starting to see reason, that she might leave this life behind, it’s like she has to prove me dead wrong.

Where are you?

I refresh the news feed on my phone, terrified every time I do that she’s going to turn up dead in the harbor.

My phone buzzes, a loud vibration on the desk, and I jump out of my chair.

Not Mia.

Vance. I answer. “Is she with you?”