We return to our food, but there’s no ignoring the current of tension in the room. When I look over at him, I find him studying me still. As if he’s waiting for me to slip up. Waiting to pounce.
“How did your brunch date go?” he asks. “You never said a word about it.”
I smile over my coffee cup, praying he can’t see the flash of panic in my eyes.
“It was great. I haven’t seen my friend in a long time. It was good to catch up.”
“She was your sorority sister, you said?” he presses.
I had told him she was my roommate. Is he trying to catch me in a lie? Or does he really not remember what I said?
“My roommate,” I remind him. “When we were business majors together at UC San Francisco.”
“Mm.”
I rapidly think back to my conversation with Jules, sorting through tidbits and pieces of information that I can string together for Armani without giving too much away or revealing who Juliana’s family is. He needs enough to feel satisfied, but not so much that he gets suspicious.
“She actually asked me to help her with something that I’m…kind of on the fence about,” I tell him. “I’ve been feeling conflicted ever since. Maybe I could get your advice?”
“Maybe I could give it,” he says. “If you tell me more.”
Nodding, I take a deep breath. “So the thing is, she’s planning to…go into business with someone she barely knows. They’ve worked on a few projects together and she’s convinced it’ll be really lucrative, but I think she’s taking a huge risk. Which I told her, but she wants to do it anyway.”
He considers this. “What kind of business is this?”
“Consulting,” I answer right away, relaxing into the facts that I can easily share. “She works in the international division at her company. Basically, she builds strategies for setting up global communications networks. They have a lot of clients in Japan, China, Germany, India, but that’s all I really know. She’s always acted like the nuts and bolts of her job are too boring to talk about. But anyway, this new business wouldn’t interfere with any of that. It’s more of a…side hustle.”
“And you don’t approve of this business partner. Have you met this person before?”
“No. I mean, this new venture could be totally fine. But personally, I think it’s smarter to proceed with caution when it comes to new partnerships. Instead of just, you know, rushing into things.”
My cheeks go warm as I realize how hypocritical I sound. Armani smirks, but kindly doesn’t say anything about our own rushed “partnership.”
“So you want advice on whether you should push the issue with her or not?” he asks.
“No. Something else. She, um, she asked me to do her a favor…related to her new business deal…that I’m not really comfortable with.”
I drink more coffee, suddenly second-guessing my decision to talk to Armani about this at all.
“Something illegal?” he asks, sounding intrigued.
A nervous laugh escapes me. “Not illegal, no. There’s nothing technically ‘wrong’ with what she’s asking. She just wants me to get her some information. Related to the new business partner.”
It’s a bit of a stretch, but Julianadoeswant me to hand over the names of the mafia allies Armani met with on the yacht—the ones who presumably will be standing with him against the Bruno-Bratva coalition. That’s definitely information relevant to her “partnership” with the Russian, since it will tell her family who exactly they and the Russians will be up against when they move against the Bellantis.
But I know full well that relaying information about the identity of my husband’s colleagues will get people killed. And I don’t want to be a party to that. This spy stuff is about much more than right and wrong, legal or illegal. I didn’t realize that when I initially signed on, but I sure as hell know it now.
“Makes sense,” he says, warming to the topic. “It’d look bad for her to get caught digging into this person’s history after she’s already agreed to strike a deal. Especially if something untoward does get uncovered, and she needs to back out at the last minute. Much better for her to have plausible deniability. It’s almost impossible to cover your tracks these days when it comes to electronic trails.”
“So you’re saying I should do the favor?” I ask.
His response has taken me off guard. I was expecting him to get all alpha-male and tell me walk away, to stay out of anything that might put me in a compromising position. Instead, he actually seems interested in considering all the angles of the situation and helping me figure out what to do.
“Maybe. Depends on how involved she wants you to get. Did she say what she’s looking for specifically, or is it more of a treasure hunt with no map and no guarantee that there’s actually treasure?”
“It’s not that complicated,” I tell him. “She just wants me to contact someone…a former colleague he worked closely with…and see if I can find anything she should be concerned about.”
Another stretch.
