“Nothing.” She avoids my eyes. “I’d just been on my feet for too long.”
“Doing what?”
“Working.”
“Doing what, Tatiana?”
She makes a mocking sound. “I bet you already know what I do for a living.”
Wise girl. I got all the information I could dig up on her false persona. “You’re a maid? You always said you wanted to be a forensic scientist.”
Her look is piercing. “Excuse me if my job is beneath you. It’s not like I could go to school and follow my dream.”
“I’m not judging you.”
“You shouldn’t, seeing that I am where I am because of you.” She stands taller. “So you can take your judgment and leave me the hell alone. There’s no shame in being a maid.”
“That’s not what I said. I just regret that you didn’t get to do what you wanted. You’re worth more than that dump I found you in.”
Hatred simmers in her eyes, making them glitter like jade stones as she drags her gaze over my bespoke suit and designer label shirt. “I may not fall into a mafia boss’s income bracket, but at least I’m earning honest money.”
“If you waited for me like I told you to do, money would never have been an issue for you.”
She gapes. “You’re joking, right?”
My expression remains serious. “Am I laughing?”
The scotch sloshes over the rim of her glass as she plants a palm on my chest and pushes me. “What do you want from me, Dante?” She shoves me again. “Why did you bring us here? Why don’t you just kill me and get it over with?”
Her efforts don’t move me an inch. “That’s not going to happen.”
“No?” She laughs, the sound unhinged. “Isn’t that why you put a million bucks on my head?”
“Who told you?”
“The last man who thought he was going to claim that million.”
“Curtis Laing?”
“Wow, Dante. You’re something else if you think he took the time to introduce himself before he chased me down the street.”
“Big guy with eyebrow piercings and a star tattoo here?” I point at my left cheekbone. “He told me he saw you in Chicago, but he had no proof. I checked it out. There was no sign of you.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve learned to run fast and to think on my feet.”
I’m curious. “How did you get away from him?”
Few people do. I can count the number of targets who evaded him on one hand. That’s why I thought he had to have been mistaken about spotting her. I never thought Tatiana would’ve been capable of outrunning Laing. The man has a reputation, and he’s a professional.
“At the first red traffic light, I jumped into the car of some guy in a suit.” She shrugs. “Told him my abusive boyfriend was chasing me. He dropped Noah and me off at a motel.”
“Noah was with you?” I stab a hand into my hair. “Jesus.”
“So thanks for ruining my life and then offering it up for a million.”
“It was a reward for information that would lead to finding you, not a price on your life.”
“With the kind of men who came after us, you could’ve fooled me.”
