# THOMPSON-HAYES: BLOOD MONEY
## Chapter Thirty-Five — The Last Threat
The offer arrived on a Monday morning in an email to Patricia.
Not from Gerald Reed's attorneys — his assets were frozen, his legal team was in damage-control mode and had been for two weeks. Not from Victor Sloane, who was cooperating with the federal prosecution and had enough problems without adding new approaches to his schedule.
The email came from a law firm in Dallas that Patricia had never heard of. A firm that had no public-facing website, no listed clients, no registered social media. A name on a state bar filing and a post office box and nothing else.
The offer was clean on its surface. A wire transfer of fifteen million dollars to an account in Mia's name, held in escrow by a Dallas bank Patricia had al
