“It’s just to make sure she signed an enforceable NDA. Then, if she were ever to say anything, even the slightest hint of a thing to absolutely anybody, we could come after her.”
“But we want her to not say anything to anybody, ever. Not go after her later.”
“And she’s seriously a shop clerk who dropped out of college. She’s going to go back to her home and her little life. She’s nothing to me, and she’s nothing to you. Why don’t we call my assistant, and he can take her back to the airport and put her on a plane back home? That would really be the best solution for everybody.”
Sergey’s eyes slitted at Tristan. “You arguing very hard for girl who means nothing to you.”
“She’s extraneous. She doesn’t know anything about coding or anything else that would help you. Having her here is not efficient. I don’t like inefficiency. She brings no value to the table and is a distraction and a hindrance.”
Sergey turned to Colleen. “Is this true, what he is saying about you, Ms. Frost? Is it true that you are not coder and you did not take computer science classes at university?”
Colleen giggled prettily. “Oh, I failed out of college. That’s why I didn’t graduate. Several professors will back me up that I can’t write software code in the slightest. I can barely check my email and get on the internet. The only thing I really do with computers is hang around stock market forums. I’m a moderator at one called Sherwood Forest. I try to keep the big-time whale traders from scamming the small-fish investors into manipulating the markets for them. It’s like herding cats. But I can’t write computer code.”
Tristan dropped his fork.
19
TwistyTrader and QueenMod and Tristan and Colleen
Colleen
“Right.” Sergey glared right at Colleen and then glanced toward the door to the main part of the restaurant. “I do not like how long Svetlana is taking. You say she was in bathroom with you?”
Colleen chewed the buckwheat pancakes slowly, grinding the salty caviar between her molars and pointing to her full mouth to explain why she was not answering that Russian-mafia-kingpin asshole about where his teenage sex slave was.
When she glanced at Tristan, she saw his brilliant blue eyes had gone slightly wider and more wary, and he’d turned his face just a bit away so that he was looking at her sideways.
Colleen swallowed with an exaggerated gulp. “Svetlana said she was going to be right behind me. She just needed to deal with some girl stuff.” She leaned over her plate conspiratorially. “You know, girl stuff. Womanly matters. Female problems.”
Usually, that was enough to make any guy immediately cease his line of questioning, but Sergey was still staring at her. He turned his head slightly toward the other men at the table but didn’t break eye contact with Colleen as he said, “Alexi, go look for Svetlana.”
Colleen stared back at him, smiling. She didn’t know what she was going to do when they figured out that Svetlana wasn’t in there, but Colleen was going to maintain this charade every second she could to give that poor girl a head start.
Sergey hadn’t stopped staring at Colleen. “She won’t get far. I like my playthings. She has no money or phone or credit card.”
Which was why Colleen had given Svetlana all the cash that had been in her purse, the cash that Tristan had given her for rent and everything else. She’d also called her a rideshare cab from the app on her phone before pushing Svetlana out of the ladies’ bathroom window set high up near the ceiling. “She’s just in the bathroom. Why would she need money or a phone?”
“If she is in toilet, then everything will be fine. Alexi will check to see if she is in there.”
Colleen gasped and made her eyes big and startled. “You didn’t send that guy into a women’s bathroom, did you? Assuming he doesn’t get the crap beaten out of him by the masc lesbian who was shining her brass knuckles at the sink, if someone screams, that guy is going to be charged with all sorts of sex crimes. You don’t barge into women’s restrooms in California.”
“I think all will be fine with Alexi looking in women’s toilet. The owner of this restaurant knows me. I do much business here.”
Dammit. “It’s not up to the owner. The other managers and the maître d’ are mandatory reporters,” she ad-libbed, remembering back to when she had been a resident assistant in college. “They have to report it, legally, and right away. If they don’t report it, they can be charged or sued if someone else was in there and felt threatened. If your guy goes in the ladies’ room, there’s going to be police all over this restaurant. You need to tell him to come back.”
The door opened, and Alexi barged back in. “Svetlana is not in bathroom. Frank did not see her exit out the front, and Sarkis said she did not go through kitchen.”
Sergey’s eyes closed to angry slits, and he leaned over his plate as he bared his teeth at Colleen. “What did you do with my girl?”
Colleen concentrated on looking as surprised as the rest of them. “She was just in there. I can go in and check the stalls for you. Since there wasn’t any screaming or arresting, I can only surmise that Alexi didn’t really go in there.”
With his honor impugned, Alexi began arguing in Russian.
However, when Sergey looked at Colleen, there was just enough doubt in his frown that she thought maybe she could waste just a little bit more time. “Look, I’m the only girl here. If you want someone to go in there and talk to her, I’m really your only choice.”
As she scooted to get up from her chair, she caught a glimpse of the lit screen of Tristan’s phone under the table and him deftly sliding his thumb over the glass without looking at it, typing Red flag.
Colleen paused, but a SWAT team didn’t break into the room, so he must not be signaling police.
