My eyes wander to the door. I should be back at Jessica and Travis’s penthouse writing more incriminating posts. Plus I need to find evidence that Travis is working with this Talebi guy—and I really need to figure out what his connection is to Micah and Javier. There’s no legal reason that I can think of that would prevent HGVB from doing business with Mexican or Russian banks, so there’s got to be something else that I’m missing.

When I started this thing I assumed that I was going to have lots and lots of time. Time to build Jessica’s paranoia, time to plant the right information in the right places, time to set Travis up for murder, time to orchestrate Jessica’s disappearance . . . But if Lander is already onto the crimes Travis is committing and if he finds a way to sufficiently cover them up, all my plans will fall apart.

Time is now of the essence.

What I don’t need to be doing is sitting here, twiddling my thumbs while Jessica gets wasted.

“And,” Jessica continues as if she hadn’t taken a full two-minute break from our conversation, “Travis stays because I know too much.”

My eyes snap back to her. “What did you say?”

Jessica shakes her head, staring into her drink. “I’m so good with secrets. And I’m not a bad actress. Without me, where would they be?”

I lean forward, my focus now completely on her, my smile sympathetic. “Where would they be, Jessica?”

“I’ve stood up for this family,” Jessica says, shaking her head a little too hard. “The Gables.” She says the name as if it’s the most ridiculous word in the world. “To listen to Travis’s father you’d think he was the pope! Completely infallible! Walking on water and turning water into wine.”

“Okay, I don’t think it was the pope who did those things, but let’s get back to you. You were telling me how you stood up for the family.”

“Liars,” she says, taking another sip of her drink. “They’re liars. When Travis and I met he told me it was love at first sight, but he didn’t love me. He loved that other bitch, the one who dumped him. But never me!”

“Wait, who did Travis love?”

“Not me!” Jessica practically screams. “That’s the only important part. He’s never loved me! The Gables lie! Liars, every one of them.”

“But at some point, you loved Travis,” I say gently.

“I did.” She puts her glass down a little too hard, causing the waiter, who is across the room, to give us a worried look. But he doesn’t come over. He’s probably worried she’ll try to order a fourth Bloody Mary and he’ll have to refuse her service.