~Blair’s~

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you. What’s in this file could flip the damn house upside down.”

The man across from me looks like every forgettable extra in a crime doc; cheap grey hoodie, cap pulled low, and sunglasses indoors like he’s auditioning for paranoia. I don’t flinch. I’ve dealt with worse at boardroom tables, in stilettos ten inches taller than his confidence.

We’re seated in a quiet corner of a downtown café, the kind where no one asks questions because they don’t care about answers. I sip my espresso, then I set the cup down gently, like I have all the time in the world. I don’t. But...