Leonard rolled into his driveway and noticed there were no lights on in the house. He checked his watch—almost eight thirty. He thought about what day it was and remembered Melissa had babbled something to him about going over to her friend’s house to play bunko.

Her friend’s husband—who’d made the mistake of sticking around for one of their hen sessions—once told Leonard that what they really did was sit around, drink wine, and trash their husbands.

He really didn’t give a shit why she was gone, just that the peace he’d enjoyed while cruising around in his baby would last a few more hours while he had the house to himself.

“I might even watch a ball game.” He reached up and pressed the button to close the roof of the car. The motor hummed and the well-oiled metal frame was nearly silent as it stretched open like a mammoth butterfly wing and gently settled into place.

He pressed the button on the remote clipped to the visor and waited for the garage door to open. The caddy took up every inch of one side of the garage, so slowly and with great care, he pulled forward, careful not to scrape the passenger side mirror against the wall. Once it was parked in just the right spot, he cut the engine and swung the door open just enough to squeeze through the opening.

Leonard walked around the back end of the car to give it a once-over before heading to the door leading into the house. Confident his caddy was clear of the garage door, he pressed the button on the wall. The motor hummed and the chain rattled against the bar as the door was lowered into place.

“Sleep well, baby.” His phone buzzed in his pocket as he stepped into the dark kitchen. He snatched it free, checked the screen, and took the call.

“Where the fuck have you been, Vinny?” Leonard’s anger masked his concern for his friend, whom he hadn’t heard from in hours.

He hung the keychain on the hook by the door.

“I was taking care of things with the Cavanaugh broad.” He was breathing heavily, and it sounded like he was running. “I was finally able to track her location, and I’m heading out to pull some guys together to go after her.”

“Wait … back up a minute.” Leonard strolled over to the refrigerator, opened the door, and the inside light spilled across the tile floor. “If you were able to track her phone, why didn’t you do that earlier?”

Last update he’d gotten from him was that he’d lost her.

“She must’ve shut her phone down, so I wasn’t able to track her.” There was a thump of a car door closing in the background.

Leonard closed his eyes and tapped the phone against his forehead to gather his patience. Yelling at Vinny was a waste of time—the guy grew up getting his ass chewed out by pretty much everyone and had become desensitized to it.

“But you just said you tracked her location.” He grabbed a beer and slammed the door shut.

He held the phone between his ear and shoulder, twisted the cap off the bottle, and tossed it onto the counter. The damn thing sailed across the slick Formica, dropped off the other side, and landed on the floor.

Leonard loved Vinny like a brother, but his friend wasn’t playing with a full bag of marbles. Let’s just say, starting in about the sixth grade, his attendance at school had been spotty, at best. Him graduating from high school had more to do with the faculty being tired of dealing with his shit than it did with him meeting even the minimum standards.

But he was street-smart, loyal, and would do pretty much whatever Leonard asked him to do. Considering the players in this deal with HRA, he needed someone he could trust to have visibility to what was happening over there and who was looking out for Leonard’s best interests.

“I got a call that she went back into the office and was getting ready to take some time off.” A car engine started.

“Hold up. You had someone at the office watching out for her?” Jesus . Why the hell would he risk bringing another person into this without checking with Leonard first?

“Yeah, I can’t be in the office all the damn time. Anyway, I had her go into my office there and grab a tracking device from my desk. She planted it in her bag like a pro.” He sounded proud. “And don’t worry, she won’t tell anyone.”

“She?”

“Like I said, you don’t need to worry about her. She’s solid, and I trust her completely.” Vinny’s voice had a defensive edge to it.

“Who is she, Vin?” The last thing they needed was some dumb broad giving them up at the first sign of trouble.

“Her name’s Helene. She’s …” His long hesitation was concerning.

“She’s what?” His frustration with his friend began to build. “Spit it out!”

“She’s Pennington’s personal assistant.” The words came out so quickly, Leonard thought he must’ve surely misheard him.

“Wait a fuckin’ minute. Did you just say she’s Pennington’s assistant?”

“Yeah, but—”

“You have got to be fucking kidding me.” Leonard pounded his first on the counter, and pain shot up his arm. “Of all people, why would you trust a woman who is stupid enough to work for that arrogant prick?” He shook out his hand, opened and closed his fist.

“She’s not stupid, Leonard.” Vinny had never used that kind of forceful tone with him before. “And like I said, I trust her.”

“Are you bangin’ this chick, Vinny?” It was obvious he had the hots for her.

“Don’t talk about Helene that way!” Yeah, they were either already doing the horizontal cha-cha or he was hoping to. “I care about her, and she cares about me, too.”

He highly doubted it, but now that Vinny’s dick had begun to do all of the thinking for him, things had just become more complicated.

Leonard did not do complicated.

“Relax, Vin.” He sighed. “What makes you think we can trust her?”

“Because she doesn’t like Charlotte Cavanaugh and wants her gone.” He quickly added, “Not gone in the way we want her gone, but she wants her fired.”

“Why does she hate her so much?” Chicks held grudges against people for the slightest things. “Was she wearing the shoes she wanted or something?”

“I don’t know why she hates her. Hell, I didn’t even know she did until this afternoon. She called me complaining that Charlotte showed up late, and when she finally got there, she had her boyfriend with her.”

“Why the fuck does she care about any of that?” Leonard asked.

“I guess it’s against some company rule or something to bring someone in the building without a visitor’s badge.” If Vinny were a legitimate director of security, he would know if that was true or not. “I didn’t tell Helene anything about … you know, what we’ve been doing with the buses and shit. And I definitely didn’t tell her I’m planning to kill Charlotte. She just doesn’t want her coming back to the office anymore.”

“All right, fine, whatever.” He did not need to be dealing with this petty, female bullshit right now. “You said she put the tracker in Cavanaugh’s bag? How did she manage that?”

“I didn’t ask,” he said. “She just called me to let me know it was done and that she and the boyfriend had left.”

“This boyfriend, why haven’t you mentioned him before?” Depending on who he was, a boyfriend could be a serious complication. Case in point, Leonard’s secretary’s detective boyfriend.

“Never knew she had one.” What the fuck did Vinny know? “But Helene said he was tall, good-looking, and very intense. But I’m not worried—my guys can take care of him.”

“Let’s hope you’re right.” Sounded like the bug up Helene’s ass had more to do with Charlotte having a hot boyfriend than the fact she broke some stupid office rule. “What’s your next step?”

“If the tracker is working correctly, the signal is coming from a place about two hours northwest of here.” The if was a bit disconcerting.

“You don’t know if it’s working correctly?” Maybe Leonard would’ve been better off taking the risk and finding someone who had an actual clue about these things.

“No, I mean, yeah, it’s working now . The thing is kinda cheap, and it took a couple hours before I could get it to start working. But once I did, the signal was really clear.”

“Jesus, Vin.” Leonard took a long swallow of his beer.

The guy worked for a multi-billion-dollar organization with essentially no one keeping watch over their spending, and he decides to buy a cheap tracking device.

“I’m meeting my guys at a place by the highway. We’ll load into the van I purchased for HRA, then we’ll head that way.” The click of a lighter was followed by the crackle and sizzle of a cigarette being lit. “She’ll be dead by the end of the day.” A long breath blew out. “The boyfriend, too.”

“Just … be careful and don’t do anything stupid, will ya?” Leonard finished off the last of his beer.

“Don’t worry. It’ll be easy pickin’s.” Vinny ended the call.

Leonard did not share his friend’s confidence.