She spotted Jamie standing near the receptionist for the law practice on the floor just below theirs. She walked up to the two women.

“Jamie, what’s going on?” Samiah asked.

Trendsetters’ receptionist, who looked as stunned as Samiah felt, shook her head. “It’s crazy. I came down to sign for a couple of packages that had been left at the security desk, and the next thing I know, a bunch of men in blue windbreakers stormed into the building. That was a half hour ago.”

“Are they not letting anyone up to the office?”

“They are, but everything feels weird up there right now, so I’m hiding out down here.”

Samiah spotted Daniel, but before she could take a step toward him, one of the men wearing a blue jacket with DHS in thick white block letters on the back walked up to him. Her heart stopped beating. For a second, terror, true and gut-wrenching, rushed through her as she waited for the man to make him turn around so they could cuff him. Instead, the man in the windbreaker began conversing with Daniel as if he knew him.

A second later, Quentin Romero joined in.

Samiah took a stunned step back. An uncomfortable chill raced along her skin as she tried to process exactly what was going on.

Why was his roommate here? And why was Quentin wearing one of those dark blue jackets? And why did Daniel look as if he was running the show instead of being questioned by the law enforcement officer? The sense of authority emanating from him seemed both out of place and weirdly appropriate.

Confusion intermingled with the panoply of emotions scattering through her brain. Unsure what to make of any of this, Samiah turned in the opposite direction and entered the lobby. As she approached the elevators, she switched both bakery bags to one hand and flashed her green-and-white Trendsetters’ badge with the other, explaining to another set of jacketed DHS personnel where she worked. They allowed her to board the waiting elevator.

Samiah sensed the tension suffusing the office the moment the doors opened on the twenty-second floor. Absent was the laid-back, casual atmosphere and general levity one usually found upon entering Trendsetters. The air crackled with barely contained angst, her coworkers’ collective discontent pulsing just below the surface.

She went straight for the kitchen, setting the bakery items she no longer had any interest in indulging in on the long counter next to the coffee station. On the way to her office, she could practically feel the furtive glances following her movements. Her earlier confusion intensified, her body heat rising with every step she took.