His eyebrows drew together. What was insulting was the fact that she thought he would ever lie to her about something like this. Especially after the year he’d had.
“Daniela—” he started, but she laughed.
“Daniela?” She nodded her head and looked away. Her eyes bulged and she mouthed,Wow, exaggeratedly. With the limited time they had, he had no choice but to ignore her temper tantrum.
“Believe me or not, but it’s the truth. And it’s not safe for you to be here. To be seen with me. Those men you saw me with yesterday? They’re probably looking for me right now. So I’m sorry, but we need to go.”
Footsteps sounded in the distance, and Theo looked over his shoulder.
And his stomach sank. It was too late. Maurice and Louis crested the hill, staring down at them from atop.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he said, standing and pulling Dani up beside him. “Here, take this.”
He reached for the letter in his back pocket that he’d written that morning on a piece of scrap paper just in case he didn’t have more than an opportunity to slip her a note and shoved it in her hand. “It explains everything. Take it to the US consulate. But you’ve got to go now. Please,” he pleaded, shifting his attention to Maurice and Louis heading straight toward them.
Dani followed Theo’s gaze, her eyes going wide at the sight of Maurice and Louis barreling down the hill.
“Theo?” she said, her voice shaking, anger replaced with fear.
“Go!” he said, pushing her away.
She clutched the note in her hand and took off running, but Louis—a champion sprinter, as Theo had discovered the first time he tried to escape—quickly caught her by the arm.
“Let me go!” she said.
“Be quiet!” Louis snapped back at her with a force that would silence just about anyone into submission.
“Let her go,” Theo said. “She doesn’t know anything.”
“Oh really?” Maurice asked. “Then what’s this?” He plucked the letter Theo had written out of Dani’s hands.
“It’s nothing,” Theo said, knowing Maurice and Louis weren’t that stupid.
“Mm-hmm. We’ll see about that,” Maurice said, tucking the letter into his back pocket. “The boss thinks it’s time to meet you.”
The boss? In the last several months, Theo had yet to learn his name.
“Fine. Take me, but let her go. She’s nobody,” he said, catching a curious glance from Dani.
“Really? Because some old broad over at the museum said that a man took off running out the back with hisfiancée,” Louis said. “Don’t you remember telling us about your fiancée when we first met?”
Dani and Theo flashed each other a look. The only way Theo could describe Dani’s face was with one word:hurt. God, he wished he could explain.Fuck, fuck, fuck. Not now.
“So nice to finally meet her,” Maurice said.
“She’s not her. Not my fiancée, I mean. She’s just some nosy woman. I’ve never seen her before in my life. Aside from yesterday.”
“Then why give her this?” Maurice asked, pointing to the letter in his pocket.
Theo shrugged. “She seemed curious. Figured I’d take my chances?”
Maurice scoffed. “You think we’re stupid? Yesterday Ithought she was just some snooping tourist we needed to make sure wasn’t going to head to the police, but now I’m not so sure. She’s coming with us.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Dani said, wriggling to free herself from Louis’s grasp. “I don’t know what you three are up to, but I’m going to call the cops as soon as—”
“Call them with what?” Maurice asked. “With this?”
He held up what Theo could only presume was Dani’s phone based on her wide-eyed look.Crap.It must have fallen out of her pocket when he was carrying her through the museum.
