“You might think you’re finished with me, Lily, but I’m not done with you. I never will be.” He leaned in so close that I felt his lips brush my ear, as if we were lovers again. “You can’t leave me, not for long. I need you and you need me.” He bit my earlobe, not hard, just teasing. “You know how relentless I can be. And you love it.”

He was almost panting. I felt desire too, but only to pull the safety off the pistol and shoot him. Instead, I reached into my bag and grabbed the gun by the barrel, hitting Martin’s face with the handle. I heard something crack and he cried out, and I ran down the hallway back to the elevator.

CHAPTER 40

After I left the Dakota I walked aimlessly for blocks. It was another cold January day, but the sun was shining brightly as if in defiance of my mood. What had I hoped to accomplish by confronting Martin? Even though I hated him for being ready to murder Claudia to save his son, the woman he had killed wasn’t my sister. Trina Greene was at least partially responsible for Claudia’s death. No one else had profited from it as much as she had. Heroin had stolen Claudia from life, but it had an assist from the two women who watched her die without calling for help. As I walked and shivered, I wondered if perhaps I owed Martin a debt for killing Trina. Martin’s obsessive and frantic determination to protect himself and his son had avenged my sister, however inadvertently.

When I went into a bodega to buy cigarettes, I realized that my father’s bracelet was no longer on my wrist. Where had I lost it? I’d been wearing it when I’d left Jesse’s. Had it fallen off my arm when I’d struck Martin? There was no safety chain on it, just one single, fragile clasp. I felt the need to storm back into the Dakota and hunt it down. That was crazy, I knew, but I was panicked at losing the bracelet again. I couldn’t find my cell phone, either. I suddenly remembered an officer prying it out of my hands at the dentist’s house. I’d never thought to ask for it back. How stupid, in retrospect. Outside I lit up and called Jesse from a payphone.