Highlight · Ch. 2: “I went to work.”
Highlight · Ch. 5: “Four characters inked on the yellowed card stock in his neat, cramped hand:”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “Closet first. Bare hangers, stack of Egyptian cotton sheets on the upper shelf. Bathroom next. No exposed pipes, no razors, mirror glued flat to the drywall with commercial adhesive. Nothing loose.”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “He didn't offer a hand. He just waited until I stood up, his dark frame blocking the driveway, the lights, the entire sky.”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “He didn't look at me when he said it. He didn't have to. The limestone walls rose thirty feet straight out of the jagged dark, pale as cracked bone against the trees. One road in. One road out. I'd clocked that five miles back through the tinted glass, the way you clock an emergency exit before the plane hits the runway.”
Highlight · Ch. 5: “Boots. Slow, measured, unhurried. The heavy tread of a man who owned the foundations beneath his feet. And lighter footsteps scrambling behind him.”
Highlight · Ch. 5: “Dead. Not a hum. The wire behind the desk had been cleanly severed with shears.”
Highlight · Ch. 4: “The linen fell away. The ink was mostly gone from my skin, transferred in a dirty gray smudge across the heel of his hand.”
Highlight · Ch. 4: “The linen fell away. The ink was mostly gone from my skin, transferred in a dirty gray smudge across the heel of his hand.”
Highlight · Ch. 4: “"You're editing." His eyes flicked up, pinning me to the chair. "In this house, that's the same thing."”
Highlight · Ch. 5: “***”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “"Reinforced security glass," Gia called from the doorway, leaning one shoulder against the casing. "Bolted from the masonry. Don't waste your manicure. I tried taking a heel to it five years ago."”
Highlight · Ch. 5: “A polished black boot stepped into the silver beam. Then the hem of Dominic's charcoal overcoat.”
Highlight · Ch. 5: “Guard on the east stairwell rotates at 2:10. Guard outside my door steps into the alcove for a cigarette at 2:12, returns at 2:20. Enzo was still downstairs working over Rocco, leaving the east corridor unmanned. A gap in the grid. I'm a forensic accountant—I build my life in gaps.”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “Tight, cramped loops. The backward slant on every *y*. The little European crossbar slashed across every number seven.”
Highlight · Ch. 3: “"It wasn't a compliment."”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “"The room."”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “"Gia," Dominic said, buttoning his jacket. "My cousin. She'll take you upstairs."”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “Two men stood at the double front doors. Big. Tailored suits that couldn't hide the bulge under their left arms. They nodded to Dominic and looked right through me, like I was a crate of dry goods being delivered past inventory hours.”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “He didn't offer a hand. He just waited until I stood up, his dark frame blocking the driveway, the lights, the entire sky.”
Highlight · Ch. 5: “Why did Salvatore Castellane have my dead father's pier key locked in his personal desk?”
Highlight · Ch. 4: “He pulled a linen handkerchief from his pocket with his free hand. Crisp and ironed.”
Highlight · Ch. 3: “"Done yet?" Dominic's voice scraped right against my ear.”
Highlight · Ch. 3: “"The room's locked because there's one road out of this place, and three different crews would pay cash to find you on the shoulder."”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “I stood in the center of the Persian rug and forced my lungs to expand. One. Two. Three. Four. Panic was a luxury for people who had someone coming to rescue them. Nobody was coming for me. My brother was gone with five million of Dominic Castellane's dirty cash, and I was the insurance policy.”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “I went straight to the window and threw my weight into the frame. It budged half an inch and slammed against a steel stop.”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “I climbed behind her because there were two men behind me and zero other options. I counted twelve steps to the first landing, eight more to the gallery. Six doors lined the upper corridor. Heavy oak. Brass deadbolts.”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “I catalogued every inch without turning my head. Four doors off the foyer. Two locks on the main entrance. No ground-floor windows reachable without triggering the perimeter sensors on the wall.”
Highlight · Ch. 5: “Dominic went rigid. I felt the snap in him before I saw it, the kind of quiet that hits right before a floor drops out.”
Highlight · Ch. 4: “"That's not freedom. That's just a longer leash."”
Highlight · Ch. 5: “I started ripping through the drawers anyway. Brass fountain pens. An empty ledger. An unlabelled amber flask. In the bottom cavity, jammed flat beneath a split leather blotter, my fingertips grazed cold metal.”
Highlight · Ch. 5: “Four characters inked on the yellowed card stock in his neat, cramped hand:”
Highlight · Ch. 5: “Tonight the double doors stood open three inches.”
Highlight · Ch. 5: “Dominic went rigid. I felt the snap in him before I saw it, the kind of quiet that hits right before a floor drops out.”
Highlight · Ch. 4: “I set my jaw, lifted my chin, and stepped out onto the damp flagstones.”
Highlight · Ch. 4: “I flinched. It was barely half an inch, but he caught every fraction of it. His hand hung suspended in the air between us.”
Highlight · Ch. 4: “I remembered that week. It was the week my mother got dropped into the ground in a cheap pine box.”
Highlight · Ch. 4: “That was the deal he'd rasped into my hair hours ago, back when the lake water was still drying on my skin. I'd been locked down here since four in the morning with stone-cold coffee and a hollow ache in my ribs I refused to give him the satisfaction of naming.”
Highlight · Ch. 3: “Danny taught me how to pick a lock when I was sixteen with a bobby pin and a filthy mouth. The brass deadbolt on the bedroom door at Cinder Point looked serious, but it dropped just as easy. Dark stairs. Pantry door nobody thought to sensor. Then a lawn wide as a football field, the cut limestone steps down the bluff, and the skiff sitting there tied to the pilings like someone wanted me to tak…”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “"Keypad rotates every twelve hours," he murmured, barely two inches behind my ear. His breath was warm against my neck. "Four armed guards patrol the cliffline. The Atlantic out there is forty degrees and the rip current pulls due east. You want to strip and dive for it? Be my guest. I'll have the Zodiac fish you out before your lips turn blue."”
