Page 48

"If you lock me inside this penthouse, I'll need something to occupy my time."

"You have work."

"I do."

Her smile arrives slowly, and I don't like it.

"I'll investigate you instead."

I stare at her.

She continues pleasantly, "Every company. Every account. Every property. Every shell corporation. Every suspicious payment you've made since puberty. I have excellent pattern-recognition skills and apparently nowhere else to be."

My mouth threatens to move, but I stop it.

"You wouldn't."

"Try me."

She opens the door.

"Elena."

She glances over her shoulder.

"Two men."

Her brows rise.

"Two," I repeat. "When you leave. You tell security where you're going, and you don't change plans without telling them."

She considers it.

"One."

"Two."

"One and a driver."

"The driver is security."

"Then you've smuggled in two using vocabulary."

"Correct."

Her eyes narrow.

"Fine. But they do not follow me into bathrooms."

"Agreed."

"Changing rooms."

"Agreed."

"Coffee shops."

"Depends on the coffee shop."