It was supposed to be simple. All struggling actor Carlo Baresi had to do was pick a man up, drive him to the location he specified, then report where he’d taken him. The only problem is, the man isn’t who he says he is ... and they both know it. Bookstore owner Joe Donnelly has a reputation for helping those in need, but this plan has been a bad one from the second he stepped in. Discovering someone has switched out the driver is one more complication he doesn’t want, especially since Carlo is the kind of distraction that can get a man in serious trouble if he’s not careful. But they have something in common. They’re both loose ends, struggling to find out what is really going on. And murder is always complicated, even when you’re on the same side.

The Low Between

He encountered nobody in the elevator to the seventh floor. The doors opened onto a rich burgundy carpet, so thick it devoured the sound of his footfalls. From down the hall, he heard a radio playing, a woman’s unintelligible singing lending an air of home to the otherwise foreign atmosphere, but the blood rushing in his ears almost drowned it out.


He reached Eaton’s door too soon. His room stood opposite, but in the time it had taken him to reach it, he’d already formulated his plan. Joe wanted to know if Monica Halford was still at the hotel. Though Joe made a few suggestions on how to find out, they were only that—suggestions. He told Carlo to do what felt natural. He trusted him not to mess it up. Carlo had every intention to not disappoint him.


Taking a deep breath, he slid the key to his room into Eaton’s. As he expected, it didn’t move, and he made as much noise as possible as he jiggled with the lock.


Chapter 25