Will shook his head. Any asshole could follow the sounds of breaking glass and landed punches toward the back of the restaurant. Will walked past the maiˆtre d’ through the main area of the restaurant until he saw Alex Rivers beating the shit out of his most recent co-star.
He pulled Alex Rivers off Nick LaRue just as Ramo´n came into the room. “Get that one,” Will said. He pushed Rivers out of LaRue’s line of sight, and then he noticed Cassie. She was pressed against the wall as if she’d been hoping it might swallow her. She looked beautiful, her hair down over her shoulders, her husband’s blood spotting her expensive silk blazer.
As she saw Will, she seemed to come to life. She stepped toward them, setting her shoulders beneath Alex’s arm to take his weight. She had the grace to blush.
Will smiled at her. “What are the chances of this happening?” he said, hating himself the minute he spoke, the minute Alex Rivers’s eyes slid to Cassie, thinned with suspicion.
“Excuse us,” Cassie murmured, leading Alex toward a chair. She shrugged out of her jacket and held a white cloth napkin to a gash under Alex’s lip. Will watched the slender muscles of her arms.
“You let him sit with you,” Alex sneered. “You let that piece of shit sit with you.”
Cassie laid her hand on his shoulder, trying to estimate the price of peace. “Shh,” she said. “We can talk about it later.” She glanced around the room until she found a waiter. “Ice,” she commanded.
Alex ran his eyes up and down the length of her body. “Asking for it,” he said. “Dressed like a fucking whore.” He tugged her short skirt down where it had ridden up during the confusion, tossed her jacket back to her.
Slowly, she lowered her hands to her sides. She folded the napkin and placed it on the table, slipping her jacket on again and shrinking into the chair beside him.
You don’t rough them up.
Ramo´ n walked over to Alex Rivers, addressing him by name and complimenting him onTaboo, as if he were just meeting him backstage.
He helped Rivers stand and led him over to Nick LaRue, who Will figured either had agreed to apologize or was the biggest fool in California.
Will sat in the chair vacated by Alex Rivers. It was still warm. When Cassie kept looking straight ahead, her brow furrowed like she was working through a puzzle only she could see, Will touched her knee.
“Hey,” he whispered. “Things are okay?”
Cassie nodded and swallowed hard. “He was fighting for me,” she said.
Will didn’t know what to say to that. He thought of the Xerox of Cassie he had in his wallet, of the day he’d given her back to Alex Rivers. He supposed he would have fought for her too.
Will smiled at her, letting silence soak the space between them. “I saw pictures of the hand,” he said finally.
Cassie turned her palm over in her lap so it lay facing up. She flexed the fingers, making a fist, and then stretched them open and stared, as if she was trying to read her own future.
The Riverses’ driver barreled into the room, protectively drawing Cassie to her feet and letting her burrow against his side. “I was getting a pack of Camels over at Nicky Blair’s,” he said. “If I’da known, missus, I woulda been here.”
Alex Rivers turned toward them. John looked from his employer’s face to Nick LaRue’s. “Looks like you won, Mr. Rivers,” he said.
Alex walked over and grinned. As he bent his forehead to Cassie’s, the driver discreetly moved away.
Will didn’t. He figured it was still police business, so what the hell.
“I’m sorry,” Alex said to her. “I didn’t mean to jump at you. This was in no way your fault.” He cleared his throat, starting to say something else, but then just shook his head and repeated his first words. “I’m sorry.”
He kissed her very lightly. When they moved apart Cassie was staring up at Alex like he’d invented the sun.
Cassie glanced at Will as Alex steered her out of the restaurant, but she didn’t risk a smile. Will understood. He followed them out the front door, watching as a path parted magically through the crowd. He listened to Alex call out goodbyes to people he knew as if nothing had happened.
You don’t borrow trouble.
Cassie was watching him out the rear side window as their Range Rover pulled away; Will was sure of that. He had let her go a second time, but he knew there would be another chance. His grandmother had taught him there was no such thing as coincidence.There are millionsof people in the world, she had told him,and the spirits will see that most of them, you never have to meet. But there are one or two you are tied to, and the spirits will cross you back and forth, threading so many knots until they catch and you finally get it right.
Ramo´n came outside to stand beside him. “Unbelievable,” he said.
“Some poor asshole does that, and he’s booked and held on bail. Alex Rivers gets pissed and the whole fucking world stops for him.”
Will turned to his partner. “What time is it?”
