His voice was quieter than I expected.
That was the first thing I noticed. Not the call itself, not the fact that he had dialled directly instead of routing it through three layers of people whose job was to make sure Adrian Blackwood never had to do anything as ordinary as press a number and wait. The quietness. Like he had rehearsed how to start this and then, at the last second, abandoned all of it.
“Ava.” Just my name. Nothing attached to it.
“Adrian.”
A pause. Longer than it needed to be. I stood on the steps outside the Blackwood building with the cold working its way through my coat and I waited, because I had learned a long time ago that the most important thing Adrian Blackwood ever said was usually the thing he was trying hardest to get out.
“I’d like to, uh.” He stopped. St
