“Are we really discussing my love life— Oh, my god. This is that thing, isn’t it?”
“What thing?”
“When you get with someone you want everyone else to be happy too.” She gagged. “This is disturbing. Please, tell me about C-L-O and psychological warfare, I beg of you.”
Ilya pinned me with a look. “Yes, I’m curious about the drug too.”
“Taube, you’re doing a really shitty job of being an ally.”
That earned me a sniff. “I think you’ll find I’m brilliant at being an ally. I’m a criminal matchmaker, Stan. That’s what I do best.”
Ilya snorted. “She isn’t wrong.”
“I should offer it as a paid service. You watch them make it into a movie.” She snapped her fingers. “And here I am doing it for free. You should be grateful.”
“For nearly breaking Kitty and me up? Or for discussing something that’s a Valentini secret with a potential enemy?”
“Ha! Ilya’s no enemy.”
“And how do you know that?”
“He used to visit—” Her eyes narrowed as she broke off. “Sneak.”
I smirked. “Used to visit… when?”
Ilya waved his fork. “You can talk freely, Lucinda. He is, as we’ve already ascertained, an ally.”
“Maybe I don’t want him knowing my beeswax, huh?” She grumbled something inaudible. “Yseult Brackton’s mother and mine were best friends as kids and were Pies?—”
“What now?” I faltered.
“It’s a sorority.” Ilya took a sip of his coffee. “Pi Beta Epsilon.”
When I nodded in understanding, Taube plucked at a croissant. “We were very close growing up despite the difference in age between us. When Ilya visited his mother during the summers, we also got to know one another.”
“You fucked?”
Taube retched. “Have you seen his face?”
I glanced at the man in confusion. I was straight but fuck, even I knew Ilya could model forGQ.
“She doesn’t like my eyes.” Rather than sound offended, Ilya appeared amused by her disgust. Somehow, I knew that only a very small number of people ever brought that out of him. “Says they’re the eyes of a psychopath, which is ironic when we share this devolution.”
“Be like looking in a mirror.” She shuddered. “Anyway, happy now that you know the ins and outs of my personal life?”
“You told me one thing!”
She flipped me the bird. “More than you deserve.”
My lips quirked. She might be annoying as fuck but, not unlike Ilya, I found her entertaining when she didn’t meddle inmylife.
“I had a thought last night?—”
“Always dangerous,” Taube inserted.
“—if Sofia had your cuffs,” he continued like she hadn’t spoken. “Then perhaps my mother’s collection holds something of interest.”
“Only trouble being, of course, that she can’t access her shit. Only her son can. Seeing as she’s in a conservatorship with Graham Jr. holding the purse strings…”
