"The silence in the library was no longer cold; it was suffocating. Asher didn't move. He stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, his silhouette cutting a sharp, jagged line against the San Francisco skyline. The scotch in his hand swirled, the ice clinking against the glass with a sound that felt like a countdown to my own undoing.
"Chloe, I don't know why you are refusing to let me in. You are a smart and intelligent woman. The Vane Syndicate aren't jokers. Who is the person to you?" Asher asked one more time.
"He is a person I had a thing to do with back in Zurich, those words came out as if it was stacked in my throat.
"Zurich he repeated, the word rolling off his tongue like a curse. He turned slowly, his eyes tracking the frantic movement of my hands. You mean to tell me that you are being chased down from Switzerland? Is that the reason why you returned back here?"
