“Valentina Hall.”
The breakfast she’d just eaten turned to stone in her stomach. Sienna cleared her throat, forced the question out even though she didn’t want the answer. “What about her?”
He paused for a long moment. “She was found murdered, and her office torched.”
The words were a sucker punch to her sternum. Her instinct was to ask him if he was sure, but of course he was. “When?” she rasped out.
“Yesterday, mid-evening. She called her husband, told him she’d be working late and then when she didn’t come home… Well, you can figure out the rest. Julian just let me know. He doesn’t like that you’re linked to her and just had a break-in, and she was…” Carson shook his head slightly. “I’m sorry.”
Even though she hadn’t finished her breakfast, Sienna pushed the plate away. “She has kids,” she murmured. It was awful regardless, but Sienna still hated the thought of those kids growing up without their mom.
Carson nodded slightly, as if he already knew.
“I’ll go over every single client she’s recommended and give you a comprehensive list.”
It could be a coincidence that Sienna’s house had been broken into by a masked intruder the same day Valentina had been killed, but she was going to go with the odds on this one. The two things were related.
She rubbed her hands over her face, trying to wrap her mind around this. “I know it’s soon, but do they have any suspects? You know there’s security cameras at her place and across the street, and—”
“Julian’s on top of this. I promise.” Carson’s expression was sympathetic.
“Can I call her husband?”
“I’d wait a little bit. Julian just left the husband and he’ll likely be telling their kids soon.”
Fighting the nausea pushing up, Sienna stood, picking up her plate and his, taking them to the sink. Wanting to keep her hands busy, she washed the dishes as she started mentally reviewing all the clients Valentina had ever sent her. She couldn’t believe that Valentina was dead, hated that her family would be grieving and dealing with the aftermath of senseless violence.
If this involved one of her cases and Sienna could help in any way, she sure as hell was going to. Because she wouldn’t sit idly by and do nothing.
* * *
After taking a few moments to splash water on her face and get herself together, Sienna stepped back into the kitchen to find Carson on his cell phone.
He nodded once at her, his expression hard as he spoke to someone.
She set up her laptop across from his, figuring this was going to be their workstation for the time being. She knew she should probably call her brothers but didn’t feel like dealing with either of them right now. She loved them more than anything but they could be a whole lot of overprotectiveness. She texted them, and Kathryn, however, just to let them know she was safe.
“You’re sure?” Carson said. “All right. Keep me informed.” He ended his phone call and his expression didn’t change as she looked at him. “Fox is out of jail.”
Ice wrapped around her. “Are you serious?”
“Yep. Got out a few days ago. Overcrowding and some other bullshit reasons, but he’s out.”
Sienna stood, though she wasn’t sure what the hell she planned to do. “Oh God, Hailey. His ex-wife.”
“She’s out of town apparently. Julian has already looked into it. She’s visiting family in Canada and is out of the country for the next couple weeks.”
Sienna let out a sigh, the tension in her chest unraveling slightly. “At least there’s that. Has Julian brought him in for questioning yet?”
“Nope. He doesn’t have a parole officer or anything to check in with, and no credit cards or cell phone that we know of, so finding him is going to be a task.”
“We’ll just see about that,” she said as she pulled up her file on Fox. She’d made a list of all of his contacts and people he’d screwed over. She was going to find where the loser was hiding out. And if he was behind killing Valentina, she was going to make sure he went to jail for life.
Chapter 7
Carson tucked his cell phone into his back pocket as he stepped into the kitchen. He’d been making phone calls all day, helping Julian as much as possible from here. Normally they worked as a team on all of their investigations and divided up interrogations and research, but his number one priority was keeping eyes on Sienna. On keeping her safe.
He had a feeling that would always be his priority.
“I found him!” Sienna did a fist pump as she looked up from her laptop, her wide grin triumphant.
He had to shake himself out of staring at her. “Found who?”
“Fox.”
He shouldn’t be surprised, but a thread of it wound its way through him. “Seriously? How?”
She lifted an eyebrow as she closed her laptop and stood, stretching. As she arched her back he had to force himself not to stare at the way her breasts pulled against her T-shirt. She was tall, lean, built like a runner. And he’d seen her in action before—she could outrun him any day of the week. He knew she’d participated in multiple marathons. Which didn’t surprise him, knowing her personality. She was driven and couldn’t seem to sit still. She’d told him that she’d been diagnosed late in high school with ADHD and the diagnosis had changed everything for her. She’d embraced that part of herself and learned how to make her ADHD work for her instead of against her.
“I probably don’t want to know how you found him, right.” He didn’t phrase it as a question.
“I didn’t do anything illegal.” She tried to look offended but she ended up grinning again, looking pleased with herself. “I simply called a few people who I know had a beef with him before he went to prison. People he stole from. Turns out he’s crashing at the house of someone he used to smoke weed with. The guy is in the Bahamas for the week and said Fox could lie low at his place while he got back on his feet.”
“You have the address?”
She groaned. “You’re going to give this to your partner, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“I was hoping we could—”
“You’re not going anywhere.”
She rolled her eyes but rattled off the address to him anyway, and crossed her arms over her chest. “I need to get out of here for at least ten minutes. Can we go to the gym or something?”
Shaking his head, he texted Julian before looking back up at her. “We can go to the gym here or there’s a track that loops around a park close by. I know you like to run.”
Her eyes lit up and he stupidly felt like a king. “You think we’ll be okay doing that?”
“No one knows you’re here and we won’t be going anyplace with cameras…” He frowned as he looked back down at his pinging phone. “Julian is stuck in interviews right now and doesn’t want to chance that Fox slips away.”
“Do we need to bring him in?”
“There is no we.” They could send an officer over to talk to Fox, but they had no reason to truly bring him in. And Fox understood the system, would know that. Carson needed to talk to him in person, wanted to see his expression when he told him that Valentina Hall had been murdered.