Maya POV
The warning came from Lucas at two in the afternoon.
A text, three words, no punctuation the way he always wrote when he was moving fast and did not have time for anything extra.
Leave the office.
I read it once, stood up from my desk, picked up my bag and my phone and my father's folder, told Mr. Choi I was stepping out for the rest of the day, and walked out of Blake and Associates through the back exit without stopping to ask questions.
This was the system Lucas and I had built years ago and never formally dismantled. Three words meant move now and ask later. It had kept me out of trouble more times than I could count in the years before my marriage, and apparently it still worked.
I was halfway down the back stairwell when my phone buzzed again.
Car outside on Pelham St
