“You can’t be serious about working together,” he said.
She flicked him a dismissive glance. “Sure I am. I know this will be a stretch for you, but quit being contradictory, and look at it reasonably.”
“I’m not being contradictory,” he said in full knowledge that the statement was itself contradictory.
“The reason we’re having this meeting is because I left a note in the chocolates,” she said. “You’re only along for the ride.”
“The flowers had a card with my name and number.”
“Fine, whatever.” Although her voice sounded the way an eye roll looked, he knew it was as close as he would get to Nadine giving in. “I don’t know why you’re digging into Dot Voline, but I assume there’s a reason beyond pettiness.”
He thought about Tyler and Jason, to that place on the I-team he wanted back so bad he could taste it. “I don’t know why you’re so focused on it either,” he pointed out.
“Because I ran an obit to find not only was Dot Volinealive, but there were factsmissing?” She sounded more outraged about the inaccuracy than the running of the obit.
“Then what, you owe it to her?” He meant it as a bit of a dig—he knew that was uncool—but Nadine put her hands on the table and looked him in the eyes.
“Yes. Or at least to the story.”
“What was missing?” he asked.
“I know you know what was missing.” Her voice was tight. “You saidas much to the librarian.”
“Maybe I do, maybe I don’t. But I want you to tell me.” He wanted to make sure there wasn’t something else he didn’t know.
“Why should I?”
Wes gave an exaggerated glance at Brent’s empty seat. “Because it seems you need me to get access to Dot Voline. You depend on me in fact.”
She puffed out her breath. “You are so annoying. You’re the worst.”
“What do you know, Nadine?”
Nadine’s mouth was tight. “There was a comment under the obituary I ran about a scandal. I can’t find any information about it, and I want to ask her.”
“Was that so hard?”
She was trembling with infuriation. “You got what you want.”
He smiled at her. “I knew it already. I saw the comment too.”
Nadine breathed out slowly. “Of course you were being an ass as always. Are you going to wreck it for the both of us?”
He fixed his expression to look like he was considering all his options, just to make her sweat.
Brent sat down with the friendly expectation of a golden retriever waiting for the tennis ball to be thrown. “Well?” said Brent.
Nadine resembled a thundercloud as Wes pretended to consider his answer. “Let me get it straight. We have to work together, keep it secret, and withhold publication until after death?”
“Yes.”
“How often would we meet Ms. Voline?” he asked, partly out of curiosity but mostly to see if he could make Nadine’s brain explode.
Brent pursed his lips. “Those are details you need to sort out with my aunt. I was only sent to get an answer. What’s it going to be? Yes or no?”
Wes waited another few seconds until the redness started to climb up Nadine’s throat. The ice queen was turning into a fire demon. He smiled.
“Yes.”
