“Who’s Alex?”
“Former client of my attorney’s brother. He does some discreet investigating in the UK these days.” He shot her a look. “He’s a terrible snoop. You’d like him.”
She smiled. “I imagine I would.” She walked with him outside, then looked at him as they waited for a cab. “Girlfriend?”
“I thought it might terrify you less than fiancée, though we could just skip right over that part and go straight to wife.” He took her hand. “You know, you could handfast with me. You’d have a year and a day to decide if you want to keep me or kick me to the curb.”
“What would be my relationship to the Lamborghini if I agreed to that?”
He shot her a look. “You have an unhealthy fascination with my cars.”
“I’m deflecting.”
“So I imagined.” He opened the back door of a taxi, then piled in after her and gave the driver an address. He sat back and looked at her. “Did you really trash hisWhite Album?”
“Of course not,” she said with a snort. “He left it out in his office and spilled coffee on it. I had nothing to do with it.”
“Is there anything else you feel you need to confess?”
She laughed a little in spite of herself. “Ididn’t do anything to him,” she said. “Someone else might have gone through hismint-in-box Hot Wheels collection, unsealed each one in turn, removed a single wheel, then engaged in a little-known technique used by terrible people everywhere to stick the backs of the packages on again.”
He smiled. “And the thug?”
“My brother, Arnie.” She looked at him solemnly. “He owed me.”
“Arnie?”
“Arnold,” she clarified. “My other brother’s name is Jack.”
Nathaniel flexed his fingers. “I’m starting to feel an unwholesome affinity with your father, seeing as how he has so wisely chosen golf legends for reference in naming his sons.” He smiled. “You didn’t really do all that to Sheldon’s cars, did you?”
She sighed. “To be perfectly honest, we only defaced the ’67 Jag, but the package was already opened because he used to roll it across the counter to bug me.”
“What a prat.”
She added that to the mental list of insults she was going to have to memorize at her earliest convenience, but nodded just the same because he’d said it with disgust.
She realized he was studying her and it made her a little uneasy. “What?”
“I don’t think you’d put up with that now.”
“I don’t think I’d do anything but take the handle of my dirk and flatten his toy,” she said, feeling extremely fierce. She looked at him. “I have friends in Scotland who taught me all about that.”
“I have the feeling I’d best tread lightly,” he said. “I don’t think I particularly want to tangle with your lads.”
She smiled because the thought was so ridiculous. “I can’t believe I have lads. And while they might have caused some soiling of that fancy suit Sheldon was wearing, I think you did enough damage all on your own.”
“The phone is a powerful thing.”
“So is snooping—”
“Which you won’t do any more of,” he finished pointedly. He paused and considered. “Feel like a trip to London on the way home?”
“What’s in London besides your Vanquish?”
He smiled wryly. “My office. I thought you might want to see how my ill-gotten gains are earned.” He paused. “You know. For future reference.”
She nodded, trying not to put any more weight on the moment than she should. She watched him pull up flights on his phone, then freeze. She watched his face, but his expression gave nothing away. He finally let out his breath slowly, then turned the screen toward her.
