Say Goodbye (Romantic Suspense #25) by Karen Rose

            “You are a menace, Liza. But you are right. Do not hide here all afternoon,” Irina chided, pushing to her feet. “Mingle with Mercy’s family. They are good people.”

            “I know. I will.” But there were so many of them and Liza was still raw from yesterday’s argument with Tom, so she’d hide in the corner until she could make her excuses and escape.

            “Well, hello.” The Southern drawl belonged to Farrah Romero, a beautiful Black woman who was a brilliant biophysicist and Mercy’s best friend. “Mind if I sit down?”

            Liza patted the sofa cushion next to her with a smile. “Please do.” She liked Farrah a lot. The woman was one hundred percent loyal to Mercy. “How was your trip?”

            Farrah and her fiancé, André, had arrived from New Orleans the night before with a number of the Romero family. A few of her half siblings had also flown in.

            “Worth every harrowing moment,” Farrah said. “We were so nervous, worrying that Belmont would jump out from behind a luggage cart and shoot us, especially since André also shot him last month. But Rafe had it managed.”

            “He really did. I didn’t understand why he’d hired so many security people, but now I get it.” Mercy had said he’d hired six people, but Liza had counted at least a dozen. Some were posted around the house and others accompanied the drivers of the SUVs that had shuttled them back and forth from the Sokolovs’ house.

            “You knew there’d be security?” Farrah asked. “Rafe asked us to keep it a secret.”

            “I’d heard rumors” was all Liza would admit to. Mercy had played shocked and amazed very well. “It’s hard to keep a secret around here. We had to get creative to keep Mercy off social media this weekend, just in case she saw a post from one of you about your flights.”

            “I’m glad you did,” Farrah said fervently. “She does not need to know about those cops.”

            Liza’s smile faded. “What cops?”

            Farrah blinked. “The cops who got killed. Oh God, you didn’t know, either?”

            Liza felt like she was going to throw up. “No. We all stayed off phones and computers. Rafe was very firm about that. He wasn’t even on his phone, just in case Mercy looked over his shoulder. Then Gideon and Daisy came over last night and made us put our phones in a box because we were playing a trivia game.” She looked around to be sure no one was listening, then leaned closer to Farrah. “What happened?”

            Farrah sighed. “The guy who was scheduled to pick us up was followed from this neighborhood to the airport. He’d just dropped off Mercy’s sibs and was coming back for us because Mama, André, and I caught a later flight. A big truck followed him and made the driver and the off-duty cop with him twitchy. They called for backup and a cruiser tried to pull the truck over. It got away. The cops found the truck abandoned on a side road. When they began searching . . .”

            “DJ killed them,” Liza whispered. “Oh no. Does Rafe know?”

            “I don’t think so?” Farrah shook her head, uncertain. “André got the details from the people who eventually picked us up. There was . . . well, he killed a woman, too. To get her car.”

            “Rafe can’t have known. He couldn’t have gone on with this party had he known.”

            “I agree. We all made a pact not to mention it to Mercy, but I thought since you knew about the security and you’re friends with Agent Hunter . . . I thought you knew.”

            “Poor Mercy,” Liza murmured. “This has to end.”

            “I know. Mercy’s gonna go off the deep end when she finds out. I’ll be here till tomorrow if she needs me.”

            Liza winced. “She’s going to be so angry with us for keeping this from her.”

            “But she gets her birthday with all of us here. I wasn’t going to take that from her.”

            “I won’t, either. It’s just . . .” She trailed off, having no words to complete her thought.

            “I know.” Farrah straightened her spine and smiled, but it looked forced. “Gotta go back into the fray and mingle. My mama and Irina are comparing notes.”