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Alex sighed. “I feel so guilty. It’s my fault Gage is in this mess. If I hadn’t agreed to help Leo by stealing the damn statue, Gage would have been tucked up at home with Dani and not dragged into the cop shop.”

“Not necessarily true,” Lacy said as she watched her mug filling with rich, dark caffeine. “If Gage were home with Dani, the cops wouldn’t take her word for it anyway. She’s his significant other. They would assume she would lie for him. Gage would need another witness that he wouldn’t have.”

Alex snorted. “But if I hadn’t broken into the Met, he wouldn’t have been in the park, and he could just tell the cops the truth.”

Lacy gripped the filled mug and turned to face Alex.

“We don’t know what’s going on at this point.

Gage might have been blamed for this, regardless of you being at the museum.

We have no details. Besides, you can’t blame yourself.

No one in here would leave you out there on your own.

We’re family. We stick together.” A small flash of guilt ran through her chest as she remembered how she wasn’t feeling so generous towards her friend’s actions earlier.

Alex sighed again. “Either way, Gage is stuck in this mess now, and I can’t help but feel this is my fault.”

Lacy reached out and squeezed her friend’s arm. “Don’t give up hope. We’re just starting this fight. We won’t let anything happen to Gage.” She said it, but sent up a small prayer, hoping the words were true.

Alex crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m starting to think it’s time to grow up and stop breaking into places.”

“You don’t enjoy it anymore?” Lacy asked.

“I do, but it’s crazy when you think about it. I don’t want to cause trouble for everyone. Honestly, I’m on borrowed time with all this. If I keep pushing, eventually the odds will swing against me and I’ll get caught.”

Lacy cocked her head. “You know, I just spoke with my father, and he suggested I break down what I like about what I do and see if there’s something else that lets me combine those skills.”

Alex grabbed a mug and put it under the spout on the coffee machine, then hit the button. “You feeling a bit out of sorts, too? I thought you loved event planning.”

“To a point,” Lacy shrugged. “Lately I’m just feeling like suddenly it’s…not enough.”

“I feel that. Like there must be something more.”

“Exactly.”

Alex took her filled mug and set it on the counter. “Let’s think on it. Maybe we can come up with something.”

Lacy smiled. “Deal. Now I’ve got to head back down to my office. I’m waiting on a call, and there are a few more people I want to reach out to.”

Alex nodded but was already lost in thought.

Ten minutes later, right as Lacy sat back down at her desk, her cell went off. “Hello?”

“Hey, Lace, it’s Ty. I got the info you wanted, and it’s weird. Something is way off about all this.

“What do you mean weird?” she asked as she placed her coffee to the side so she could take notes.

She pulled over a pad of paper and grabbed a pen.

She might not actually write anything down but simple doodling had always helped keep her mind focused.

She started running her pen in circles, making growing loops on the page.

“Derek Ransome, another investigator in the office, got a call early this morning telling him to come into work. He was told there had been a break in at the Met, and they already had a suspect.”

“Okay,” Lacy said, still waiting for the weird part.

“The thing is, when he got into the office, Derek asked for the case file and any details, but his boss, Chris Perkins, said there wasn’t one yet.

That the detectives hadn’t even been to the scene, and no one at NYPD had been assigned yet.

Perkins said he got the tip directly that the Met had a break-in and had to call their security to tell them.

Then he told Derek he already had a name for the perp because his tipster had told him.

He said he sent detectives to pick the guy up for questioning, but that he was to be considered armed and dangerous. ”

“I don’t get it. Are you telling me the NYPD didn’t even know there was a break-in at the Met until this Perkins guy told them, and then he told them that Gage had done it?”

“Yep. And even weirder is the fact that the Met didn’t even know there had been a break-in until Perkins called them and mentioned it. According to Derek, he even told them what was stolen.”

“Holy shit,” Lacy murmured, “that is weird.”

“Yeah. Really fuckin’ strange. Cases don’t work like that at the D.A.’s office. Not ever.”

Lacy’s mind raced, and her loops on the paper got bigger, reaching to the outer edges of the paper. There were so many implications she almost didn’t know where to begin. “Does Derek know how Perkins got the information?”

“Apparently, someone called him at home and told him. Derek asked who the source was, but Perkins refused to answer. Said it was a need to know thing, and he didn’t need to know. All he needed to know was that the cops were bringing this dangerous suspect in for questioning.”

“Shit.” Lacy tossed the pen down and ran a hand over her hair. “Is there any way to find out who it was?”

“That’s just it. Derek said Perkins took a call and then headed directly to his office and closed the door.

But he heard Perkins say, “Yes, I’ve got the cops and the Met on it.

A search warrant is in the works for Callahan,” before he shut the door.

Derek said the whole thing spooked him because he saw the screen on Perkins’ phone when it rang. The name on it was Austin Davis.

“Oh, my God. What the hell does he have to do with any of this?” Lacy demanded.

“I have no idea, but Lace, be very careful. That man is very powerful.”

“Ty, thanks for this. You are a lifesaver.”

“No worries. Gotta run. Talk soon,” Ty said and then clicked off the call.

Austin Davis. Ty was correct. He was a very powerful man. Her stomach rolled, all that coffee suddenly turning to acid. Whatever was going on, it was far bigger and much worse than she expected.

Much, much worse.