Tailspin

"Yeah," said Lesley.

"Did you tell Alessandra?"

"It was my first call," said Lesley.

"How'd she take it?"

"I was surprised. She cried."

"Cried?"

"I know," said Lesley. "After everything DaVanna put her through. The blackmail. The threat of prison on a murder charge. Not much of a sister if you ask me."

"Maybe inside that rotten person was something good," I said, not wanting to speak ill of the dead.

"I doubt it," said Lesley, who had no such compunctions. Lesley had seen first-hand the hell DaVanna put Alessandra through. For Lesley, it would only be crocodile tears.

* * *

You know what I had to do and I steeled myself to do it. I went to Lily's that afternoon and after passing through her goon squad found her working at her desk as if nothing had happened. Apparently she'd already gone through all five stages of grief, or maybe there was no true love between her and DaVanna.

She looked up at me, but there was no joy in her face.

"I was wondering when you'd be here," she said.

"You . . ." I began. She cut me off.

"I can't answer your question," she said. "You're an officer of the court."

Her statement pretty much confirmed it was her. I wasn't going to press it. It was going to be ruled a suicide. Why would I spur a murder investigation that was bound to fail? Lily wouldn't have made any mistakes. Not with something like this.

My heart sank when she asked her next question. It eliminated any doubts I had that Lily had arranged for DaVanna's death. Lily's world was a cruel world, and DaVanna had literally outlived her usefulness and turned into a huge liability. Lily knew how to deal with liabilities.

"So about Jasmine?" she asked. No expressions of sorrow for DaVanna. This was her endgame after taking care of DaVanna's departure from this world.

I sighed. "I'm going to drop the charges against her."

"Thank you."

"It's not for you. It's the right thing to do," I said.

Then I confessed to her that I'd lied about the information I had on Jumbo. That it was just bait to elicit a reaction from her. I never expected I'd snag Jasmine. I didn't want it on my head that Jasmine was deported just because she was following orders from Lily, especially since no harm was done to my already messy apartment. It's exactly what Lily what have done if she was in my shoes. She had already proved her mettle by giving me the jackknife that exonerated Alessandra.

She took a deep breath and sighed. "Max, that's why we respect each other. We both have our moral code, and there are many common pages. We're even now in my book."

"Lily . . . in more ways than you know."

She may have decided we'd never be together again, but I hadn't made that decision. As much as I loved Sky, the powerful attraction between Lily and me was something I couldn't ignore.

But I mortgaged my future on a whim, and the tomorrow that Lily and I vowed to address was now today.

* * *

Max will return, but with whom?