Kalinda's eyes bored into the back of Donna's head as she stalked away, Blake in tow. The cacophony of partygoers faded into a low buzz. The room narrowed to encompass just the three of them, and Kalinda struggled to maintain her composure.

She couldn't believe he'd brought Donna to the firm, of all places. It was just another one of Blake's shots across the bow, but it was the first one that had truly hit home.

Her feet itched to follow them, to corner Donna and draw her away from Blake. If she could say something sweet enough or repentant enough, maybe she could make this whole thing go away. Donna was Blake's ally in this war now, but that was at least one way in which Kalinda still had the upper hand.

Blake was introducing Donna to Diane's assistant now, but even from across the room, Kalinda could see that he already had one eye on the door. He draped a casual arm around Donna's waist, and Donna looked up at him with one of her wide, loose smiles. Blake's eyes collided with Kalinda's from across the room, daring her to react.

Kalinda drew in a breath and held it. He was better at this part than she thought.

"There's no drink in your hand!" It was one of the guys from accounting. He slapped Kalinda's back from behind and then planted himself in front of her, blocking her line of sight to the other side of the room. "Let me fix that." He held out a bottle of Heineken.

"That's all right," Kalinda said, repositioning herself to try and see past him. "I'm more of a champagne kind of girl."

The guy shrugged and held the bottle up to his own mouth, wobbling a little on his feet. By the looks of things, this wasn't his first beer. "By the way, somebody should tell you," he said, giving her a sloppy smile. "Everybody in this room thinks you're awesome."

"That's good to know," Kalinda said, craning her neck.

"No, really," he said, putting on a serious face. "They all say they don't know where this firm would be without you."

Kalinda maneuvered her way to the other side of him. "I'm afraid I have to admit this one was all on Blake." She tilted her head in Blake's direction.

He was gone, and Donna with him.

"Well, maybe so, but—"

"Actually—could you excuse me?" Kalinda scanned the room, but they were nowhere to be found. She pasted a smile on her face and made her way across the room with what she hoped was a casual stride.

Out in the elevator lobby, Kalinda glanced up at the numbers above the elevator doors. None were moving, and chances were, the pair hadn't taken the stairs. Kalinda felt her heart start to slow a little. There was still a chance to put space between the two of them, at least for tonight. If Kalinda could keep them from having a private conversation, she could at least buy some time.

"Looking for someone?"

The question was a taunt, and Kalinda spun around. Blake was leaning up against the wall next to the doorway to the rest rooms, his arms folded and a smug smile tugging at his mouth.

Kalinda gave him a cool look. "Just getting some air."

"My mistake. I thought you might be trying to talk to Donna."

"So what if I am?" There was an edge in her voice. He was getting to her.

"It's just that I was under the impression that you were a top-notch investigator with keen observational skills, Leela."

The name was like nails on a chalkboard. Kalinda flinched.

"But what am I saying? It doesn't take an investigator to pick up on the fact that when someone is running away from you, she doesn't actually want to talk to you."

"And what business is it of yours?" Kalinda said, her voice cold as steel. She took a step toward him.

Blake tossed off a shrug. "She came here with me, remember? Besides, I think Donna might have a different idea about just whose business she isn't."

"Oh, good, you two are having a little chat," Donna said, patting her hands dry on her suit as she emerged from the bathroom. She flashed Kalinda the plastic smile she'd been wearing all night. "Sorry to interrupt, but I've got to get this man home." She roped an arm through Blake's and patted his shoulder with her other hand.

Donna stalked over to the elevator and pressed the button. The doors dinged open immediately. Blake gave Kalinda a little salute as he followed Donna inside, smirking.

As it was closing, Donna spread her hand against the edge of the door, and it shuddered open again. She poked her head back out. The plastic smile was gone. "By the way, I've blocked your number," she said, her eyes dark. "So don't even try to call."

Kalinda's stomach knotted. The elevator doors slid shut.

"Going home already?" The voice was Alicia's. Her coat was half-buttoned.

Kalinda managed a smile. "Looks like you are, too."

"I really need to get out of here." Alicia looked her over from head to toe and made a face. "And okay, that's it. You're coming with me."

"Coming with you?"

"First time the new guy's investigator scoops you—tequila shots! Lockhart Gardner tradition." Alicia tilted her head down the hall. "I'll get your jacket."

Kalinda reached into her pocket and clenched a hand around her useless Blackberry. She could get to a pay phone. She could borrow Alicia's phone.

Or she could admit she'd lost this round.

Alicia emerged from the hall again and handed the jacket to Kalinda. "You coming?"

Kalinda pushed out a quick sigh that came out like a sniff. "Okay." She took the jacket. "Let's go."

Alicia pressed the elevator button with a little smile. "This time, I'll pour you into a cab."

#

The bar Alicia picked had mellow music playing in the background, nothing that might have offended any of the middle-aged professional types that made up its prime clientele. It was just loud enough to keep conversations from being overheard at the next table. Kalinda hooked the heels of her boots around the rung of her barstool, staring at the multi-colored cardboard coaster in front of her.

"We need an outrageous number of tequila shots," Alicia announced to the bartender.

"I'm going to need you to define 'outrageous' a little bit more clearly than that." The bartender's left eyebrow quirked upwards, and the corner of her mouth followed. "One person's outrageous is another person's morning pick-me-up."

"We'll start with three," Kalinda snapped. "Each."

The bartender and Alicia looked at her, identical startled expressions on their faces.

Kalinda opened her eyes wide and put on her disarming smile. "I'm thirsty," she said.

The bartender's mouth opened, then closed again. "Coming right up," she said, and moved away.

Alicia's eyes were on Kalinda, sizing her up. Kalinda met her gaze. Calm. Opaque but not secretive. The look she'd worn ten thousand times before and would wear ten thousand times again. Alicia tilted her head and Kalinda could read the start of a question in the faint wrinkling of her brow.

The bartender deposited a salt shaker and a small white plate filled with lime wedges on the bar between them.

"Why do you need an outrageous amount of tequila?" Kalinda asked. The best defense was always a good offense. "Not that I'm complaining about being dragged along for the ride. I'm always happy to be your wingman on tequila night." She turned her stool to face Alicia. "But you seem—upset."

The bartender lined up six shot glasses on the bar and cocked the bottle slightly before pausing. She shot them a questioning look. "You're still good with six shots to start?"

"We're good!" Kalinda and Alicia said in unison. They looked at each other, and Alicia snickered.

The bartender flicked her wrist six times, each time leaving another glass full of José Cuervo. She grabbed the cash Alicia had left on the bar and turned toward the next customer.

"Drink first," Alicia said, her mouth pressed into a ridiculously serious line. "Tradition." She pushed the plate of lime wedges in Kalinda's direction.

Kalinda reached out for one of the glasses and turned it around in her hand. She was just unsteady enough that any amount of alcohol was probably a risk, but it was one she couldn't resist taking. She sprinkled salt into her palm and licked it off, tossed back the shot, and squeezed the juice from a lime wedge into her mouth. It was sour on her tongue.

"You were saying?" Kalinda continued, her eyes on Alicia. "About why you're in a bar with me instead of back at the party?"

"Actually, I don't think I was saying," Alicia said, flicking her eyes upwards. "But all right, I'll go first." She sucked in her cheeks, and there was a flash of anger in her eyes. "Mr. Canning was at the party. He came in to meet with Diane."

"If he accused you of using Peter to win your case, he's just being a sore loser," Kalinda said, her eyes narrowing. "You did a great job in there today, and that has nothing to do with—"

An abrupt laugh cut her off. "You know what? I never thought I'd say this, but I wish this were about Peter." Alicia pinched the bridge of her nose.

Kalinda handed her one of the shots. Alicia took it with an uneasy smile and sprinkled salt into her cupped palm.

"Mr. Canning dropped the bomb that the pharmaceutical company had been expecting to pay out ninety million. They hired him to get us down to fifty million." Alicia licked the salt off her palm and took a shot of the tequila. She shook it off with a shudder. "And of course, they took us down even lower than that."

Kalinda's eyes widened. "Wow."

"I was so arrogant, Kalinda. All 'you fought well, sir'." Her voice dropped, mocking. "I felt like such an idiot when he told me. And now I don't know what I'm supposed to do with this. Do I take it to Will and Diane? Do I let it go?"

"Well, would you want to know if you were them?"

Alicia let out a weary chuckle. "No."

"Besides, if it got out, it would be—" Kalinda altered her voice to mimic Diane's speaking patterns. "'Potentially damaging to the firm's reputation.'"

"You should do impressions." She looked down at the plate of limes and started toying with them, straightening them out into a neat arc. "It was just...surreal, you know? Standing in the middle of the party, everyone with their champagne glasses, celebrating. And then the rug was pulled out from under us, and I was the only one who knew."

"That does sound uncomfortable."

"Mostly, it made me wonder—" She gave Kalinda a knowing look. "—about all the undercurrents that are there all the time without anyone realizing. Anybody could be hearing bad news, having their heart broken, facing their own secret fears and rages, at any time. And I'd have no idea."

The knot in Kalinda's stomach tightened again. So this was what gentle prying looked like on Alicia. She kept her face neutral. "I guess we never know the private things that are happening to the people around us."

"Unless they choose to tell us." Alicia's voice was matter-of-fact, like a teacher explaining something to a child.

"Right. But it is their choice. Or it should be."

"Of course." Alicia salted her hand and handed the salt shaker to Kalinda. Kalinda took it and held it loosely in one hand.

Alicia lifted up a shot glass and toasted Kalinda. "To choices!"

She paused, obviously waiting for Kalinda to join her. Kalinda shook some salt into her palm and lifted a glass with her other hand. "To choices," she said.

In unison, they licked salt off their hands, tossed back a shot each, and squeezed a lime into their mouths.

Alicia coughed. "Speaking of choices. Donna seemed like she was—an interesting choice for Blake to date." Out of the corner of her eye, Kalinda could see Alicia watching her. "He doesn't really seem like her type."

Kalinda gritted her teeth. She set her empty glass down on the bar with a clink that was a little too loud. It was another opening, but not one Kalinda had any intention of taking. Kalinda met Alicia's eyes with an even expression. "I wouldn't know."

Alicia smiled. "I just thought that since you knew her, you might have some insight."

"I have no insight at all into who Donna dates." Her voice was sharp.

"Okay," Alicia said breezily, but a hint of a smile played at the edge of her lips. "It is strange, though, that Blake brought Donna to the party. I actually thought he was dating Lana!"

Kalinda’s throat tightened. She forced a word through it. "Lana?”

"You know, the FBI agent." She tilted her head toward Kalinda. "From the police corruption case."

"I know who Lana is," Kalinda made herself say. "What made you think he was dating her?"

"I saw them last week. They were having dinner at Emilio's."

Kalinda's stomach turned over.

Alicia looked her over, checking her reaction. "They were having a very intense conversation," she continued. "They could have been fighting, I guess. Maybe he was breaking up with her." Alicia raised her eyebrows. "It's kind of a coincidence that the next woman he picks up is somebody else you know, though."

Kalinda pressed her lips together. She reached for the last shot of tequila and moved it closer. If he'd found Donna and Lana, who knew who else he'd talked to?

"Unless...it isn't a coincidence?"

She had to say something. Not the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but something. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "It isn't a coincidence."

Alicia raised her eyebrows, urging her on.

"Blake has been investigating me," Kalinda admitted.

"What?" Alicia's eyes widened. "Why?"

Because he was a sadistic son-of-a-bitch. Kalinda tried on a shrug.

Alicia shook her head. "What do you mean, investigating you?"

"He's been asking people things about me. People I've known."

"Things." Alicia raised a knowing eyebrow. "Like about who you've dated."

"Like about my employment history, my personal life, what I've said about my family, where I went to school, where I lived before Chicago." Kalinda's hand clenched around the glass. "I don't even know what all he might have asked or who he's spoken to."

"That's—that's horrible."

Kalinda slid the shot glass slowly back and forth in front of her. "I value my privacy. And people who don't respect that—" Were dangerous. "—make me angry."

"Yeah." Alicia met her eyes. "I know what you mean."

Kalinda's mouth turned up at one corner. Alicia did know a thing or two about that. The situation was different, but it was the same sense of violation.

"You know what, though?" Alicia cocked her head at her. "He's not going to get anywhere by questioning Donna. Lana either."

Kalinda rolled her eyes. "Because they're my friends and they won't let me down?"

"No, because you never tell anyone anything about yourself. So they won't have anything to tell."

"You're right," Kalinda said, picking up the last tequila shot. "I knew I had that policy for a reason."

It wasn't that simple, though. Even when you never said anything outright, when you'd spent enough of the right kind of time with people, there were always little things they could pick up on. And there were always going to be ways that somebody like Blake could puzzle those things out.

Kalinda drank the shot in one gulp. When she set the glass back down on the bar, she couldn't meet Alicia's eyes.

"Is this—is this going to be okay?" Alicia asked. Her voice was low.

Kalinda closed her eyes. This was so much bigger than Alicia's probing questions about her sex life. Kalinda had built a fortress around herself, but Blake was good enough and unscrupulous enough to penetrate it. One slip, and everything could unravel.

"I don't know," Kalinda whispered.

Alicia cupped Kalinda's hands, pressing them tightly together. Kalinda's eyes started to sting.

"Hey." Alicia gave Kalinda's hand a little nudge with the side of her palm. "Thank you."

"For what?" Kalinda's voice was a croak.

"For telling me. For trusting me."

Trust was a luxury Kalinda couldn't afford—not now, and not ever. But Alicia's hands were warm around hers, and the tequila was dulling her senses just enough. For a moment, Kalinda could almost let herself feel safe.