Chapter 1 - The Question No One Was Allowed to Ask
“Did someone send you?”
Victor Rossi stood in the doorway of his private study, barely upright, his silver cane shaking beneath one hand and a pistol trembling in the other.
Tessa Harper did not move.
The carved wooden tea box sat open on the marble counter between them.
“No one sent me,” she said. “I work here.”
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“That is not an answer.”
“It is the only one I have.”
He raised the gun slightly.
Tessa’s heart hammered, but she forced herself to look at him.
“Put the gun down, Mr. Rossi. You can barely stand. If I wanted you dead, I would not be holding the thing that may be keeping you alive.”
She nodded toward the tea box.
Victor looked at the fine white powder beneath the dried herbs.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know exactly,” Tessa replied. “But I know it does not belong in tea. And I know your symptoms do not look like a neurological disease.”
Victor’s voice became dangerously quiet.
“You have no medical degree.”
“No.”
“You are not a doctor.”
“No.”
“Then why should I believe you over twenty specialists?”
Tessa swallowed.
“Because I am not asking you to believe me. I am asking you to test it.”
For a long moment, Victor said nothing.
The storm lashed rain against the study windows. Somewhere down the hall, a grandfather clock ticked toward midnight.
Then Victor’s knees buckled.
The pistol slipped from his hand.
Tessa caught his arm before he hit the floor.
He was heavier than he looked, but she managed to guide him into a chair.
“Dante,” Victor rasped.
His head of security appeared within seconds.
Dante Cole stepped into the room with two guards behind him, one hand near his weapon.
“What happened?”
Victor looked at the tea box.
“Lock down the house,” he said.
Dante’s eyes moved from Victor to Tessa.
“Why?”
“Because,” Victor replied, “someone may be trying to poison me.”
The guards went still.
Tessa picked up the tea box carefully using a clean towel.
“Do not let anyone touch this,” she said. “And do not let anyone leave.”
Dante looked at her with open suspicion.
“You are giving orders now?”
“No,” Tessa said. “I am trying to stop your boss from dying.”
Victor shut his eyes, his face pale with pain.
May you like
Then he spoke one sentence that changed everything.
“Do what she says.”
