Page 4 of The Diamond in the Rough

Would they?

She took a deep breath, her body shaking, her senses hyper-aware. Listening for the footsteps that would tell her that whoever it was blackmailing her was here to collect. The bag with the cash. Unmarked bills under twenty or less.

She hoped this would be the last time, but she knew it probably wouldn’t.

The real question was when Simon would find out. Because he would, eventually, when he noticed how much money she was paying. How much she’d already paid. She knew she should tell him before that point, but she couldn’t figure out how.

The phone she’d been sent along with the most recent demand rang, and she answered it. “Yes?”

She frowned, pulling it away from her ear, confused at the chanting she heard coming out of the speaker.

So tired.

It felt like her energy was draining out of her.

The air being pulled from her lungs.

The necklace.

It burned.

It tightened around her neck—except that when she grabbed at it, it wasn’t any tighter.

She ripped it off, trying to throw it as far from her as she could, even as she fell to her knees.

She tried to gasp, and failed.

Tried to stay upright.

To keep her eyes open.

To—

“Rayn!”

I gasped, choking, as Mason took the necklace from my hands.

“That’s enough of that,” the big orc snapped, glaring up at Parikh.

“Whose was it?” Parikh asked me.

I swallowed. “A woman,” I rasped, pushing my palms against the black fabric on my thighs, trying to hide the fact that they were shaking. “She thought about a Simon?”

Parikh’s eyes narrowed. “Simon Adams?”

I shook my head. “She didn’t think a last name.”

“And you can’t—?” He trailed off.

I looked up, not sure what he was asking. “Can’t?” I repeated.

“Find out?” he asked.

I frowned. “No.”

His expression looked annoyed as he kept staring at me. Then, finally, he spoke again. “And why not?”

“It’s a vision, not an interrogation,” Mason interrupted. “He can’t pick and choose what he sees.”