“Stella,” he says, his face stoic. “You need to tell Pax how you really feel.”
“No,” I whisper. I drop the Hope Diamond into a simple blue cloth bag. I limp toward the door, my foot now clean butstill throbbing. “I think you’re mistaken, William. You’ve read this one wrong.”
William’s lips flatten. He readsnothingwrong. “Tomaten auf den Augen haben—‘you have tomatoes on your eyes.’?”
“What?”
“It’s a German idiom that means you are not seeing what everyone else can see.”
If I ignore and deny and run long enough, these feelings for Pax will go away.
Oh, Stella.
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
I’m leaving this lavish bathroom when we hear the front door crash open. Robert shouts, “Is there anything I can help you with, miss?”
We hear stomping on the staircase. “Where are they, Robert?” Doors banging open, slamming shut. “They weren’t on East Second like we agreed.” She finally appears, one finger on Pax’s chest, driving him backward into the bathroom. She looks puzzled for a moment, but then catches a glimpse of herself in one of the six thousand mirrors and composes herself. She slides her fingers through her perfect sleek hair and closes the door.
Enter Clarice DuBois.
Pax smiles through a clenched jaw and waves his hand over her portion of the take. “Clarice! We were just dividing—”
But Clarice marches up to Pax and, without hesitation, smacks him fully across his right cheek.
Pax drops his head but looks up at her. “Would you believe you’re not the first person today to do that?”
“Oh, I can start a line,” she says. “Charge tickets.” There is no French accent now. Instead, there is a deep sniff of New Jersey. “No murder, Pax! We agreed—we were not going to harm Max Blanck. And you—dumbass. You bring agun?”
Pax pales and shifts his weight. He nods. It’s not often Pax looks bested, but he does under the wrath of Clarice DuBois.
“I put my reputation on the line for you,” she seethes. “I sold Max Blanck on the idea of bringing you and yours in.” Here she points loosely in my direction. Is she implying that I belong to Pax?
I slide my eyes to Nirav. Nirav suppresses a grin and stares at his toes.
She glances at me, then walks slowly to Nirav. She looks supremely disappointed. “I can’t believe the two of you went along with this.”
Nirav shakes his head.
“We didn’t,” I say. “We knew nothing about Pax’s plan. I was just as pissed as you are.”
Pax points to the cheek opposite of the one that is now reddening. “Smack number one of the day.”
“Don’t make it three,” Clarice warns. She crosses the white tile floor to face me.
Spirit flashes an image of a white dove. Peace. The image surprises me. Clarice softens. We stand a moment, her eyes locked with mine. It’s as though she’s confiding in me, as if she’s sayingDon’t do this.
Don’t do what?
“They didn’t know,” Pax says. “I promise. The gun—” His voice catches. “That was all me.”
We stand in silence a moment, and Pax says gently, “Your part of the spoils…” He motions feebly to her portion of the take again.
She looks at it with what may the saddest expression I’ve ever seen her wear. “I’m not taking that. I can’t have those jewels tied to me now.”
She turns to me. “You said before, while you wereplanning—you’re not in this for the slice of the pie. I wasn’t, either. It was never about the pie.”
Hmmm. Clarice wasn’t there when I said that; this was part of the discussion of whether we should include her in our plan. Sheisgifted, then. She’s been faking her giftsjust enough, just like me. Interesting.
