The meeting was Sandra's idea.
Not a legal meeting — not yet. Something smaller. A preliminary conversation, she called it, in a neutral location, without lawyers present on either side. She'd framed it carefully when she proposed it: knowing what you're dealing with is different from knowing what the filing says.
Damian had thought about it for two days.
Then he'd said yes.
Not because he wanted to.
Because the surveillance outside the bookshop had been running for six days now and he was tired of knowing someone was watching him without knowing the face behind the instruction.
The café Sandra had chosen was on a street neither of them had any connection to. Midmorning, quiet, the kind of place that served good coffee and minded its own business. Damian arrived eight minutes early. Took a table near the back with a clear view of the door.
Ordered tea.
Waited.
Elliot Voss arrived at exactly ten o'clock.
He was taller than Damian expected.
