**ECHOES OF A DEAD MAN**

Pier 44 was a desolate stretch of rotting wood and rusting shipping containers jutting out into the freezing waters of the Patapsco River. The fog was thick, rolling off the black water like smoke. I stood under a flickering halogen streetlamp, holding a heavy leather briefcase containing the ledger.

The wind whipped my hair across my face. I was terrified, but I wasn't alone. Hidden in the shadows of the containers, perched on the rooftops of the abandoned warehouses, were twenty of Alessandro’s most lethal men. Alessandro himself was somewhere in the dark, watching my every move through the earpiece hidden beneath my hair.

“Keep him talking, Catherine,” Alessandro’s voice murmured in my ear, a grounding, steady anchor in the storm of my anxiety. “Draw him into the light.”

Headlights cut through the fog. A sleek silver Mercedes glided onto the pier, stopping fifty yards away. The doors opened. Four men in dark suits stepped out, sweeping the area with assault rifles. Then, from the backseat, David emerged.

He was wearing a bespoke Italian suit, an expensive cashmere overcoat draped over his shoulders. He looked wealthy. He looked powerful. He looked nothing like the exhausted accountant who used to complain about the price of diapers.

“Katie,” David smiled, walking into the halo of the streetlight. He stopped ten feet away. “You look good. A little stressed, maybe. Do you have it?”

“I have it,” I said, lifting the briefcase. “Where is the money you promised?”

David chuckled, a dry, humorless sound. “Oh, Katie. Always so naive. You think I’d just hand you a million dollars? You’re a loose end. You know too much.” He snapped his fingers. The four armed men raised their rifles, aiming directly at my chest.

“Give me the case, and I’ll make it quick,” David said, checking a gold Rolex on his wrist. “I have a flight to Zurich in two hours.”

I didn't flinch. I looked at the man I once loved and felt absolutely nothing but disgust. “You really are stupid, David.”

David frowned. “Excuse me?”

I dropped the briefcase onto the wet pavement. “I said, you’re stupid. Did you really think Alessandro Romano would let you summon his people like a dog? Did you really think a man who survived three of your bullets would just hand over his leverage?”