Page 48

there to defend it. It was his memory, his work, all that he’d

collectively amounted to, that she held in her hands. She

couldn’t afford to be careless.

Still. She found her hand slowly resuming its movements,

and found her eyes locked to her phone until her alarm went

off, reminding her that she had a workshop in twenty minutes

she had to be prepared for.

Chapter 6

Cassia

The glow of the city’s lights, even far from the Strip,

infiltrated the tinted windows to the backseat of the cab.

Cassia was wrecked by her nerves. She kept clenching and

unclenching her hands. Her palms were damp. A muscle in her

left thigh kept twitching and it made her leg jump up and

down every so slightly. The cab driver, an older man with salt

and pepper hair, never looked back at her.

When Stu called that afternoon and asked if she’d consider

having a woman as a client, she said yes. She didn’t let him

hear how excited she was when she thought about the

mysterious woman who’d sat down and had a drink with her

two nights ago. She’d wondered if it was her long before Stu

had called her back and told her that she’d meet at eleven at a

small hotel lounge off the Strip. Then he’d given her the name.

Adalynn Arnaud.

Cassia hadn’t detected even the slightest bit of a French

accent, but then she realized it was likely her married name.

She was a widow. She’d said that. And she’d shrugged, but

that shrug had been too carefully practiced; it gave away the

pain it was meant to hide.

When the driver pulled up at a beautifully constructed