Page 125

She chuckles. When I don’t laugh in return, she continues. “You’re serious?” she asks, in French, in a voice that’s pure surprise.

“Of course. She’s my best friend.”

She raises a brow really?

I nod yes.

She shakes her head in a gesture that can only mean she thinks I’m foolish or insane or both. “No doubt, she’s a wonderful amie. You two are close. But she’s not the same with her lovers. You’ve seen it. Elena is there for satisfaction and only satisfaction. No one can use her.”

That’s true. Elena is hardly the image of a lover girl. But the fact fails to calm my temper.

Logic, doll. Die pointlessly on your own time.

I swallow hard. “I’m not wasteful. I’d rather not kill you.”

“Next you’re going to say we’re on the same side,” she says. “That you only tied me up for your own safety. That you’re threatening me at gun point because… well, what reason do you have? I’d love to hear it. You’ve always been so creative.”

We both kill people for a living. We’re both untrustworthy, in a certain sense.

I try something I never do:

Honestly.

“If you want to save me some time, you can tell me what you’re really doing here,” I say.

She looks around again. Her eyes land on the bathroom door, then the bedroom, then the front.

She’s doing the math. Since there’s no noise outside, Matteo is probably in the bedroom.

“I’m here to help you keep Nerdy James Bond there from discovering all of our passport numbers,” she says. “By any means necessary. Including killing the two of you. But I’d rather not. I hate to destroy such pure love.”

I try to hold a poker face. If she’s really here to block Matteo, could be backup from Olympus.

A mole at Mi6 who wants to go undetected.

Or even a French agent trying to keep a double-agent’s identity safe.

If she’s lying, she’s here to turn that information over to the government. Which means me and Elena end up in jail or on the run.

If she’s on my side, I can trust her with a plan.

If she’s not, I have to kill her and destroy this laptop without losing Matteo’s trust.

Not an easy task.

“How did you find us?” I ask.

“Let me go and I’ll tell you. Or would that ruin your little game?” She motions to the bedroom. “If you’re working him, you’re good at it. That man is in love with you. The way he looks at you, like he’ll die if he loses you… that doesn’t come around every day. Especially in our line of work.”

“Would you die for anyone?” I ask myself the same question, even though I know the answer. There’s only one person I’d even risk my life for and that’s Elena. But it’s not selflessness. We’re allies.

“Of course,” Camille says without hesitation.

“A lover?” I ask.

“When I was younger, I thought so, but now that I’ve faced the other side of eternity, it’s hard to make that claim.” She looks to the nearly empty bottle and motions another please. “I’m jealous. I wish I loved someone enough to kill for them.”

She’s right there.