Schemes Come to Naught novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Table Nine

Dex's POV

I found her through a mistake she had made in July.

When she moved into the townhouse, Valeria put herself on my family phone plan, to be helpful.

Ben had the login, because he paid the bill for the company phones, and at four that afternoon he held his screen out to me in the stairwell.

A blue dot sat on the steakhouse downtown, the one where Raymond MacAvoy had said good to see you again.

"I'd come with you," Ben said.

"Don't. Stay with Ines."

"Ines told me to say stay out of it. She said you'd go anyway."

"Then you've said it."

The other thing I had was the kitchen iPad.

She had left it on its charger when she ran, still signed in to her messages, and the passcode was the date she had picked for our wedding.

I had read the thread on it twice in the car.

I had it in my coat pocket now.

The steakhouse was loud with the early dinner crowd.

Valeria sat in a corner booth in her cream blazer with her red lipstick on, laughing at something.

Across from her, with a glass of red wine and a perfect tan, was Raymond MacAvoy.

I walked the length of the room.

Heads turned, one table after another.

"Dex," MacAvoy said, and stood, with his hand out and his friendly smile on. "I was hoping we'd get to talk."

"Sit down, Raymond."

He sat.

Valeria hadn't moved.

For one second her face did nothing at all, and I saw what Ines had seen in the kitchen, the cold, bored face she had shown Ines at the lake house.

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