“I’ll go at the end of the week,” I assure him and disconnect the call to find Santiago’s eyes still on me. He raises his eyebrows. “One down. One to go. Plus Hildebrand.” I check the time and stand.

“You’re sure you don’t want me to go with you?” Santiago asks, standing too.

“No. Hildebrand has the idea I’ll one day sit on The Tribunal. Let me use that. I’ll let you know what I learn.”

He extends his hand, and I take it. “Thank you, Judge. For everything you’re doing for my family.”

Guilt creeps in, but I nod because I don’t trust myself to speak. And then I head toward the compound.

Predictably, Hildebrand is sitting in his office well into the evening. He is divorced, has no family in the New Orleans faction, and rarely visits his adult children or brothers on the East Coast. Which is why he’s so fucking committed to the letter of the law.

“Judge. I wasn’t expecting you,” he says as I’m shown into his office.

“I realize it’s late, but I was passing by and thought I’d drop in. We have something to discuss, after all.”

He looks at me like he doesn’t quite follow, which is a ruse, but I play along.

“Ms. De La Rosa. I am her guardian, and as a law man myself, I will represent her if need be.”

“Well, that is beneath your standing. You are a judge.”

I shrug a shoulder. “I am not bothered by appearances or standing.”

“What would Carlisle say about that, I wonder?” He and my grandfather were good friends. As far as men like that can be friends.

“I guess he’d turn over in his grave.” I set my briefcase down and take a seat. “The Tribunal has called Ms. De La Rosa to appear based on the words of a convicted and executed killer.”

“We’d like her to answer some questions. That’s all. In fact, her staying away raises some eyebrows I can tell you.”

“That hasn’t been her choice. She is unaware of the summons. I’ve kept it from her.”

“Why?”

I tilt my head, take a moment to study him, then lean forward a little. “I’m going to be very honest with you. I feel she’s more delicate than she lets on. And in my opinion, the matter being as inconsequential as I know it to be, it may behoove us all to allow me to mete out an appropriate punishment and move forward without dragging the De La Rosa name through the mud. It is after all a woman’s game she played out of jealousy.”

His eyebrows furrow. “A game?”

“The poisoning wasn’t Mercedes’s doing. We all know that. In hiring the courtesan, Mercedes simply wanted to make Ivy jealous. That’s where her involvement ended.”