For a moment, she thought he wasn’t going to acknowledge her shift of topics.Then he sighed.“I should clarify.You’re in my apartment in Paris.”
Stunned, that took a moment to comprehend.“Paris?As in the one in France?”
“Yes.”
She frowned, trying to put the pieces together.Trying to read his expressionless stare.“You brought me to France?How the hell did you manage that?I don’t remember boarding an airplane.Not to mention that my passport was at my place.”
“I found your passport and brought you here on a private jet.”
So many questions.“Just how rich are you?”
He smirked.“Rich enough.”
“Are you going to answer all my questions with cryptic answers?”
“Maybe.”
She pressed the palms of her hands against her eyes, trying to stave off the headache forming.“Okay, let’s pass on how this was achieved.Whydid you bring me here?”
“Because you were attacked by my enemy.”
A memory surfaced.Something Savage had taunted.“What is theLa Famille Lemaire?”
One eyebrow raised.“Where did you hear that?”
“From him.”She shuddered.“He taunted me.”
“God damn it,” he muttered under his breath.He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.Debate warred across his face, but then some type of resolve settled because the tension in his shoulders suddenly relaxed “There is something about me that you don’t know.”
“I’m getting the feeling there is a lot about you I don’t know.”
“All right.Let’s start with the basics.My name really is Maxence Chevalier, but I’m not an art dealer.Or, I guess I should say, I am, but only on paper.”
Confusion furrowed her brow.“I don’t understand.”
“What I’m about to tell you remains between you and me.If you go to the police, I will have no option except to eliminate you.”
Fear crept along the edges of her nerves.This Max wasn’t her Max.The man before her had morphed into a stranger.
“Maybe you shouldn’t tell me.”
“You’re right, maybe I shouldn’t, but here we are.The gallery is a front.It’s a way to launder money from overseas partners.I hired you as an extra layer of legitimacy for the business.Everything you do, all the sales you make, are legit.It’s just not the only thing that goes on there.”
“Laundering money.”She blinked.What rabbit hole had she fallen through?None of this made any sense.“I take it that’s not a euphemism.”
“No, it’s not.I am what is called a specialist in my world, and I work for myCaïd.My boss.”
She was even more confused.Nothing was making sense.
“Lemaire is the family I work for, and the head of that family lives here in Paris.”
“Head of the family?That sounds like something you hear in a mafia movie.”
Max didn’t confirm or deny anything.He simply stared at her, and waited.
Quinn blinked.It couldn’t be.Could it?“You’re in the mafia?”
“A somewhat broad description, but essentially yes.”
