Chapter 2

Rules and Distance

I woke to pale light filtering through the tall windows and the quiet certainty that I had not truly rested.

The guest suite looked exactly as it had the night before precise, expensive, impersonal. My bag still sat where I had left it. The black performance clothes I had worn were folded neatly over the chair because I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving them in a heap. For a long moment I simply lay there, staring at the ceiling, and let the memory of Cole Rankin’s gaze settle over me again like a second sheet.

He had watched me as if the rest of...