CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
She didn't sit down. She stood there with her arms crossed like the posture alone could keep her upright through whatever came next, and after a moment Dimitri stopped asking her to.
"Seven years ago," he said, "your father came to me. Not the other way around. I want you to understand that first, because everything after it changes shape depending on who walked through whose door."
"Why would he come to you?"
"Because Calder Mace had already approached him. I wanted to use the restaurant — the location, the foot traffic, the fact that nobody looks twice at deliveries going into a busy kitchen. Your father said no. Mace doesn't take it well." Dimitri's jaw tightened, an old anger surfacing that had nothing to do with the room they were standing in now. "Your father kn
