CHAPTER 48 – Blackmailed Part 1
The coffee shop smelled like cinnamon, burnt espresso, and whatever floor cleaner they’d been using since high school. It was the kind of place Lia used to sit with a textbook open in front of her, pretending to study while mostly eavesdropping on people’s conversations and pretending her life was something out of a coming-of-age movie. Now it just made her stomach feel tight. She and Dante sat in his SUV for a beat, engine ticking in the December cold. Through the windshield, she spotted Mr. Sanchez at a corner table, hunched over a paper cup, scrolling his phone like he was trying to look important enough to avoid eye contact. Dante was quiet beside her, eyes sweeping over the storefront, the sidewalk, the parked cars like he was expecting trouble to crawl out of the shadows. “You re
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