“His name isn’t Sergey. Svetlana told me his real name.”
“Whatever his name is, Sergey and his goons threatened you. They said they would track you down, and theycan.They figured out your real name in that conference room in about two minutes. I want you to come with me so I can make sure you’re okay. And we can do it completely platonically if that’s what you want. I’ll keep my hands to myself until we’ve cleared the air.”
“Oh, I didn’t say you had to do that,” Colleen muttered.
Tristan paused, a smile lifting one side of his mouth and one eyebrow.“Oh?”
She heaved a huge sigh, and her shoulders drooped. When she crossed her arms over her chest, the laxness in her posture made her look like she was exhausted and cold. “We haven’t changed since we were Sailor Moon and TwistyTrader, versus being Tristan and Colleen. We’re not fundamentally different people. We just know a little more about each other, and after your sexual conquest diary, I know even more about you that I didn’t need to.”
Tristan chuckled.
“It’s not just that you’re TwistyTrader and I’m Sailor Moon. It’s not just that you’re Tristan King and I’m Colleen Frost. It’s that there are mafia guys chasing after you and trying to kill you. What worries me is that you didn’t tell me that you were in trouble with the Russian mafia or whoever these guys are. And I don’t think the guys shooting at us at the Phoenix airport were the same guys who tried to conscript us into their Russian mafia just now. Before I get on that plane, I need to know how many different criminal organizations you’re involved with.”
Tristan paused, grinding his teeth as the last horizontal sliver of the molten sun extinguished itself in the Pacific Ocean beyond the end of the airport.
Not telling Colleen about his occasional nickname,Twist,truly had been an oversight. The only people who used it were a few asshole friends from high school like Micah and that one stupid internet stock market forum.
But he and Colleen had just had a problem with a miscommunication, so he didn’t want to screw up again. “It’s going to take a while to explain, so let me lay it out while we’re on the plane,” Tristan said, pointing toward the gaping maw of the hangar. “Standing out here in the open is getting risky. My plane is in that hangar, right there, where Micah just walked off to. If we talk while we’re getting on the plane, we could do two things at once. Walk and talk?”
“Dude, Ineedtoknow.”
“It’s complicated.Thatquestion, the one you just asked,thatquestion about how many criminal organizations are currently trying to kill me, could have a lot of answers. Many of them could be true and many of them could be false, and some would be both or neither. But I want to tell you everything.”
Everything except about the letter from the Malefactor’s estate and its contents.
Colleen’s jaw bulged near her ears on both sides of her sweet little face. She seemed to be working something out in her head, practically gnashing her teeth as she was doing it, and her brown eyes got wider and more furious at the same time.“Triple!”
“Triplewhat?”he asked her.
“My salary. How much you’re paying me to run around with you as your ‘coding consultant’ and get shot at.Triple!”
“Yes, triple. I’ll triple your salary. Fine.Done.Get on the plane before we both get shot.”
Fury shook her body. She gave a littlemeepof rage, but she stomped past him toward the hangar.
Tristan followed, wondering how the hell he was going to explain his entire life and the pickle he’d gotten himself into.
Inside the hangar, the California sun had heated the stagnant air all day, and the fetid warmth permeated Tristan’s wet clothes until he felt balls-deep in a steaming swamp.
Jian was leaning against the car they’d rented, a silver high-end BMW that Tristan hadn’t even gotten to drive, and he waved. “Your luggage is on the plane, including Ms. Frost’s laptop. I take it we’re leaving?”
“We aredefinitelyleaving,” Tristan told him.
“Have you filed a flight plan yet?”
“No.”
“Do you have a destination in mind?”
“No.”
“Right. We’ll need to decide on those and soon. What are your options?”
Tristan’s shoulders cramped. “Chicago, I guess? I have a meeting there with some other business associates in two days, ones who probably won’t sell me out to an international crime syndicate.”
Colleen, ahead of him, turned back. “That’s where they’ll expect you to go.”
Tristan ran his hand through his wet hair. “What options do you recommend?”
