Cole's POV
Marcus had the surveillance report on my desk by seven.
Sophia Vaughn had met with Emily Santos twice more. The recordings were clean—Victor's lawyers had made sure of that. But Marcus had pulled the café's security footage and the body language told a different story. Sophia looked scared. Not performing. Actually scared.
That changed things.
I called Marcus. "I need you to get a message to Sophia. Quiet channel. Tell her I want to meet. Just her and me. Before noon."
"She won't come."
"She will if you tell her Victor's payment cleared but the second one won't. He only pays when the story runs. If she backs out now, she gets nothing."
Silence on his end while he processed that. "You want me to lie."
"I want you to give her a reason to talk to me before she makes a mista
