Page 53 of A Violet Obsession

Sera hands me a coffee. “I looked up your friend last night.” Her eyes lift toward the door above us. “She’s going to need some serious legal help.” She nods toward the man in a custom suit standing near the sofa. “I called Luke Bloom.”

Luke and Brady have been friends since college, and I’ve gotten to know him some over the last few years. He’s also one of the best criminal defense attorneys in Atlanta.

“I checked with my contact at APD,” Luke says. “The security footage from the auction house is still unclear. Their tech team is working on it, but they can’t recover large sections due to damage.”

I straighten. “How was it damaged?”

“They didn’t say.” Brady gives me a hard stare. “But they recovered enough to show your friend, Lily, clearly opening a locked cabinet, removing the necklace, and leaving the work room with it.

The room goes quiet. A pit forms in my stomach.

Sera’s gaze flicks between me and her brother.

“There will be an explanation. If it’s damaged, someone could also have tampered with it.” I cross my arms. “I need the original footage to check.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Luke’s tone is careful. “But there’s a more immediate problem.” He pauses, and I can tell by the way his mouth flattens that this is about to get worse. “They’ve submitted paperwork for an arrest warrant. It’ll take time for a judge to get to it, but you should expect it probably within the next twenty-four hours. Maybe less.”

Fuck.

“Which means,” Luke continues, “if she’s here and they come to execute the warrant, and you don’t turn her over, every person in this building is looking at harboring a fugitive.”

Brady unfolds his arms and takes a step forward. “Finn.” His voice is even, which is worse than if he were shouting, because his you-need-to-be-reasonable tone already has my hackles up. “I know you’ve got history with this woman—or your family does—but I can’t put my team or my company at risk because you’re convinced she’s innocent. Particularly when the evidence says she’s not.”

I meet his eyes. “She didn’t do it.”

“There’s video, Finn.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time security footage was altered.” I say, through gritted teeth.

“Who benefits from this?” Sera asks.

Luke shrugs. “Anyone who wants the police looking at Lily instead of them.”

“Voss?” Vincent muses.

“Maybe.” Sera nods.

“He publicly threatened the winning bidder,” I add.

“He seems to be the obvious answer…” Sera makes a face. “But if Voss thinks Lily has the necklace, framing her makes no sense. Her getting arrested doesn’t get him what he wants.”

“I’ll agree with you that Voss will do whatever it takes to get what he wants, in this case the necklace. He kidnapped her off the street, for fuck’s sake. But the obvious answer is on the fucking video. If it’s enough for a warrant, it means someone has already proven it’s not corrupted. Unless you’re saying there’s someone else, besides Voss, that’s got it out for her—you’re trusting someone you barely know when the facts say she’s lying,” Brady snaps.

I tense, my whole body going rigid. Brady’s eyebrows meet between his eyes before his eyes widen. “I wasn’t talking about⁠—”

“She. Didn’t. Do. It.” My voice is deadly quiet. “We’ll go. This isn’t your fight.”

Sera rolls her eyes and snorts. “Save the dramatics, Finn. You know we’ve got your back.”

I don’t take my eyes off Brady. “If you don’t want to free up someone to get Emma out of town and take her to our parents, I understand. I’ll take my sister with me and make other provisions for the Vales.”

“You’re just being stubborn.” Brady lets out an exasperated noise. “The police are issuing a warrant. At some point, you have to ask yourself if you’re seeing what’s actually there or only what you want to see.”

My jaw locks. The room compresses to the two feet of space between us.

“Okay, testosterone levels are reaching critical mass,” Sera mutters. “Just want to flag that before the blood starts spraying.”

Neither of us moves. Shoulders squared, facing each other.