Closing the door behind her, Elena didn’t linger in the great room. She darted past the breakfast area where the catering staff were arranging the table for their meal, then took refuge in a hot shower to try to figure out what to do next.

She wanted to accept Gage’s olive branch—the Chiara Campagna introduction—and forget about Alonzo Salazar. Except what if Gage’s former mentor was the same caliber of father figure as Gage’s actual dad? What if Alonzo had been a man without scruples, driven to achieve his own ends no matter the cost?

It bugged her to think of letting a man like that get away with bending the world to his will. But for today—for Gage—she’d call Chiara and see about setting up another meeting instead. Maybe focusing on her career and her future would help her to forget about the knot of emotions she felt for Gage.

Ruminating over the view of Lake Tahoe out the window of her luxury hotel suite, Chiara Campagna hurried to pick up the call when she spotted Elena Rollins’s number on her caller ID.

“Hello, Elena,” she answered, needing to make the woman feel at ease with her. “I hope we’re going to hang out today while we’re both still in Tahoe.”

She regretted manipulating someone as genuinely nice as Elena seemed, but she couldn’t afford to lose this chance to find out what information Elena had gathered for her story on Alonzo Salazar and how the Mesa Falls Ranch owners were involved. Those six men knew more about Zach’s death than they admitted, and Chiara would never get to the bottom of it without stirring the pot.

Starting with Elena.

“As a matter of fact, I’m free for a few hours. Gage is meeting with Jonah and Desmond Pierce at the casino this afternoon, so I thought I’d see if you and Astrid wanted to see the sights.”

“Astrid sounded wiped out when I talked to her this morning.” She stretched the truth a bit, but she didn’t want to share Elena with Astrid, especially when she needed to pump Elena for information about the Mesa Falls owners. Even though Astrid’s husband was one of the owners, too, Chiara had never gotten the impression Jonah had been as close with Zach as Gage Striker. They’d been roommates at school.

“Why don’t you and I meet at the casino for drinks?” That would put them in close proximity to where the secretive ranch owners would be getting together.

“You don’t get swarmed by fans at places like that?” Elena asked curiously.