"Ava...my apologies for the unceremonious circumstances of my visit," Renz began. Ava continued to stare at him, her pale eyes hard and unblinking.

"I care very little about ceremony, Herr Wolfenbarger. Especially given the circumstance. Can you or can you not tell me where my husband is?" she said.

Renz took several deep breaths, delaying what he knew would be an unpleasant conversation. There was simply no easy way he could inform Ava that he'd killed her husband.

Renz also felt sorry for Ava, for her tiredness and apparent distress truly betrayed how pretty she really was. She was a far cry from the fashionable debutante he'd briefly met many...