The meeting was set for neutral ground — a quiet restaurant Garrick selected personally, private room, exits mapped, Ronan and two of Garrick’s most trusted people positioned discreetly within reach the entire time. June sat across from an empty chair for nearly ten minutes before Vivienne Ashgrove finally arrived, and I understood, watching from the adjoining room through a feed Garrick had arranged, exactly why Odile had called her considerably more dangerous than her brother.
Vivienne moved like a woman entirely comfortable in her own composure — silver-streaked dark hair, a stillness that reminded me, unsettlingly, of Odile’s own careful bearing, nothing in her manner suggesting the calculated menace her letter had implied.
“Thank you for coming,” she said, settling into the chair ac
