“Intelligence?”
Her jaw tightened almost imperceptibly.
Julian smiled without warmth.
“There.”
Leo’s expression returned to stone.
“You’re guessing.”
“I make expensive guesses.”
He opened the folder again.
The records did not give him the neat answer he wanted.
That was what made them more disturbing.
Leo had apparently worked around specialized federal operations without belonging neatly to any public agency Julian recognized.
Her assignments were fragmented between sealed task forces, protective details, overseas training programs, and threat-response teams whose names had been stripped from the documents.
Then, abruptly, the trail ended.
Two years earlier.
No explanation.
After that came a birth certificate, a modest apartment lease, tax records from temporary jobs, and finally employment paperwork from the Onyx Lounge.
It looked like a normal life pasted over something that had been deliberately erased.
Julian looked toward the bloodstained carpet where the robbers had fallen.
“You knew exactly when Marcus could draw.”
Leo’s eyes remained on him.
“You knew the robber’s safety was engaged.
You moved before falling glass hit you.
You checked your watch when the shooting started.”
He stepped closer.
“Why the watch?”
Leo hesitated.
“Habit.”
“What kind?”
“The kind I’m trying to forget.”
That answer silenced him longer than denial would have.
Marcus reached toward the folder.
Julian closed it and kept it.
“Go downstairs,” he told Marcus.
Marcus stared at him.
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“What if she—”
“I said go.”
Marcus left reluctantly.
Leo watched him disappear through the elevator doors.
“You shouldn’t have sent him away.”
Julian raised an eyebrow.
“Was that a threat?”
“No.
Advice.”
“Why?”
“Because now you’re going to ask questions you’re better off not asking.”
Julian almost laughed.
People spent their lives avoiding his questions.
Leo Vance was warning him away from hers.
“Start with the robbery,” he said.
“I already gave my statement.”
“Not to me.”
“You’re not law enforcement.”
“Neither are you anymore.”
That landed.
