“It won’t.” Luke shook his head. “Think about it, Kitty. The police would bring him in for questioning. He’d shrug and say he hadn’t seen you, then remind them that you were a drug runner, involved with all kinds of shady people.”

Kitty covered her eyes and sighed.

“Given Johan’s status, skin color, and resources,” Luke continued, “I don’t see how going to the police can work favorably for you.”

“I have to do something,” Kitty hissed. She removed her hand from her eyes, smearing a tear across her cheek in the process. “I can’t run for the rest of my life, always looking over my shoulder. I want to stay in this town, Luke. I want to make something of myself.”

Luke nodded, acknowledging both the unfairness and the ambition. But it was this hunger for success that had landed Kitty in such hot water. Her new talent agent had said that she needed something to set her apart from the competition, and Kitty had taken this very seriously. Listening to her story, Luke asked himself if he would’ve done the same thing. Young, new in town, with access to canary, would he have appropriated a pinch here and there to help elevate him to a higher level?

Damn right he would.

“You have to lie low for a while.” Luke leaned closer to Kitty, measuring his tone so that it was both forthright and kind. “Give Johan some time to cool his jets, and to prove to him that you’re not bringing in the cops.”

“Run away, you mean.” More tears spilled down Kitty’s cheeks and she used Lisa’s shirt to wipe them away. “Hide from the big bad man.”

“Not forever.”

“How long? A few months? A few years?”

“Maybe a year.”

“And what if—while I’m working on some potato farm in Idaho—Johan goes after my family? What if he kills them to get back at me?”

“I don’t think that will happen,” Luke said, although he was far from certain. “Johan Fly isn’t the Colombian cartel. He’s a drug dealer to the rich and famous. Dangerous? Yeah. Protected? No doubt. But that protection only stretches so far, and it sure as hell doesn’t stretch all the way to Kentucky.”

“You don’t know that.”

“No,” Luke conceded. “But Johan has been careful so far, which tells me he’s smart, which further tells me that he isn’t going to take his brand of malice to the other side of the country. He’s an L.A. boy, born and bred. Everything he knows is right here.”

“Maybe,” Kitty said. “Maybe not.”

“I know. It’s all conjecture.” Luke spread his hands and sighed. “All guesswork.”