The Secret Alibi

To save himself, he must name her. So he says nothing.

They sent forty-one federal agents to take Dante Cavallo out of his own house at five in the morning. Twelve would have been an arrest. Forty-one is a statement, and statements are made for cameras.

The charge is the murder of a federal judge. The evidence is flawless, which is the first thing that troubles him, because he did not do it and because a case this clean was not assembled in a week.

He has an alibi for the night the judge died. He will not use it.

The alibi is his wife.

Eleven days into a marriage she did not choose, Sienna Rossi is the only person who can clear him, and saying so aloud would unseal the life she was placed inside of before she could walk. He would rather go down for a murder than open that door. He does not tell her why. He does not tell her anything.

So she stops waiting to be told.

What Sienna takes while he is in a cell:

• His house, and every man in it who assumed she would be managed


• His war, fought through inventories, retainers and a lawyer who does not flinch


• The rotation of guards, the cameras the city can subpoena and the ones that cannot


• A photograph that does not prove what the Bureau needs it to prove


• Every truth her husband was protecting her from, and the reason he thought he could