bumped into her, slipping the camera off her shoulder as she righted herself with a laugh. She made a self-deprecating comment about being a klutz but he was too focused on simultaneously hiding the camera behind his back while scoping out the street for any sign of Anthony or his lackeys.
No one. The street was surprisingly empty for a Friday evening.
She called back her goodbyes and he waited in the open doorway until she was safely inside the cab. The moment she was gone, he took the camera to the back office, gathered his things and headed out the back door. The sooner he could get this image to Eddie, the better. He had a battered old laptop at his makeshift apartment around the corner and he figured he could scrounge up the cord he’d need at the pawn shop two blocks over.
Stu had slipped out the back earlier so Cole was the last one at the shop. He started to lock up when a car speeding too fast caught his attention. He saw the passenger side window start to lower and instinct kicked in. He dove for the trash cans just as a gunshot went off. Two. Three. Then the car was screeching off. It had never slowed down—a classic hit and run.
He heard voices in the ensuing silence. Then doors opened and people rushed toward the street. He had to get out of there.
It wasn’t until he’d hit the end of the block that the adrenaline started to wear off and he realized that his thigh was killing him. He’d known what happened before he saw the evidence. Still, the sight of blood seeping through his jeans had him cursing under his breath.
He’d been shot.
Chapter Two
When Andie walked into the Upper West Side bar, she spotted her sisters right away. Sisters. That was a word she’d never get used to. When she’d set out to find her birth parents, she hadn’t let herself get her hopes up. She’d hardly let herself imagine what it might be like to meet her mother and father, let alone siblings. Granted she only had one half-sister, but her half-sister was best friends with her former stepsister so she’d gotten two sisters in the deal.
Two sisters who were hard to miss in the back booth of the bar. Beautiful and vivacious, her half-sister, Jenna Knight, and her ex-stepsister, Mackenzie Rivers, were also very important people. That’s how she classified them, at least. Mackenzie was the founder and managing editor of the city’s hippest online news site, HeatMap, and Jenna was a premier divorce attorney—the one who was almost always featured in the gossip pages in those stories about celebrity divorces. Jenna was quick to point out that she was always, always on the winning side. If there could be a winner in a divorce, Mackenzie would add. Lately Jenna had even been talking about opening up a firm of her own, with some financial help from their father.
Mackenzie waved her over, her wild blonde curls bobbing around her face as she shifted over in the booth to make room for Andie.
“Hey, Rose Red, we thought you’d never make it,” Mack said.
Andie slid into the booth and found herself facing Jenna. If she was being honest, she still found her half-sister slightly intimidating. They’d been getting to know one another these past few months and, while Jenna had been nothing but lovely to her, she was also the most confident person she’d ever met.
At this particular moment she looked forbidding and severe as she frowned at her former stepsister. “Stop calling her that.”
Mack, as usual, was completely unfazed by Jenna’s disapproval. “Why? She likes it. Don’t you, Rose Red?”
Andie opened her mouth but Jenna turned to her before she could answer. “You don’t have to appease her, Andie.”
She shrugged. “I don’t mind.” In fact, she kind of did like it. She was close with one of her former foster brothers but other than that, she’d never had siblings and the idea of having a nickname…well, it made her feel like she was included. Like she had a place in the world, alongside the self-proclaimed Cinderella and Snow White.
With her sleek black bob and perfect pale skin, Jenna actually kind of fit the description of Snow White. Of course, that was where the similarity ended. Andie would never imagine the fairy tale Snow White to be a divorce attorney, or so very scary when she meant business.
“See?” Mack said. “She doesn’t mind, she said so.”
Andie,