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.”“We’ll be on time.I’m going to grab something to eat.Why don’t we meet by security at twenty-five after? I’ll drive.”It was clear that Mallory wanted to undermine me, but I wasn’t going to let her.I didn’t know her deal yet, but with the tight quarters of my Honda del Sol looming in our future, I’d have approximately half an hour to find out.Seemed like enough time to me.I bought a Snickers bar and a packet of peanuts from the newsstand in the corner of the parking lot and sat on a public bench.I bit into the Snickers and scribbled names into my composition notebook, munching without any trace of manners, completely absorbed in my candy bar and Harriet the Spy routine.That’s why I didn’t notice the motorcycle that pulled up in front of me until the driver got off.Dante.He put the bike on its kickstand and faced me.His black leather jacket was unzipped half way, exposing a white T-shirt underneath.Well-worn jeans, creased by the knees and frayed at the hems, covered his lower half, down to black leather, round-toed boots.It was the same thing he’d worn when he first came to my house.I slammed my notebook shut and wiped a ring around my lipstick with my index finger to remove any traces of chocolate that may have smeared onto my face.“What are you doing, Samantha?”“Nice to see you too, Dante.”“You’re working here now?” He jerked a thumb behind him in the direction of Heist.“It would appear that way, yes.”“But sometimes things aren’t what they appear to be.”“Okay, I’m working here now.”He straddled the paint chipped bench and faced me.“Doesn’t add up.”“What?”“If you knew you were going to be working at Heist, you would never have entered that contest.And you would never have gotten a job so fast if you hadn’t applied before the contest.So somehow you got a job here, between the time that woman was murdered and today.And between that time, someone poisoned my sister.And I think it’s related, and I want details.”It would have been easier to lie to Nick in Italy than to lie to Dante in front of me, but the irony was that I’d been honest with Nick despite the distance between us.I suspected what Nick would say about me being thisclose to a homicide investigation.But I didn’t know Dante that well.I did a little internal negotiating on whether or not I would feel better/want help/want Dante’s help when something he said struck me.“What do you mean someone poisoned your sister?”“They found traces of poison in Cat’s system.That’s why she passed out.”“But we didn’t have time to eat.I took the food with me when Eddie drove her home.”“She said she ate the bread.”“We all ate the bread.”“And you didn’t get sick?”“Nope.” But Logan had.“Dante, Cat’s husband is on the road, right?”He nodded.“Are you going to stay with her, at least for now, to take care of her?”“Yeah.”“Good.”I stood up from the bench.Dante stood too and turned me toward him.He leaned in and I could smell cinnamon on his breath.“That doesn’t mean I’m not going to keep an eye on you.I don’t buy this whole ‘new job’ thing.I don’t know what you’re hiding, but if you’re into something, I’m going to find out.” His brown eyes bore holes into my head.“If this is about you feeling some kind of rush, you’re risking too much.”He stepped closer to me.I tried to back up but my calf hit the bench I’d been sitting on.There was no place for me to go, and parts of my body were telling my brain they didn’t really want to go anywhere.“Besides, there are better ways of getting a rush,” he said, running the back of his index finger down the side of my neck and across my clavicle.I flicked his hand away with a Karate Kid wax-on/wax-off maneuver.“I’m not looking for a rush.”“Good.Some things are better when you take them slow.”In the distance, I saw Mallory exit the store.“I have to be somewhere,” I said, which seemed the safest of the things running through my head to say out loud.“Tell Cat I hope she feels better.I’ll come by later this week to check on her.” I walked past him to my car.“Samantha,” he called out behind me.“Be careful.”“Of what?” I said, turning around and walking backward for a few steps.“I’m just a buyer for a department store.”I smiled and then turned away again, feeling the heat of his stare on my back the whole time.If Mallory wanted to know my qualifications, she was going to have to broach the subject again without my help.As far as I was concerned, I was fully capable of doing this job, even if “the job” involved a few things probably not spelled out in the job description.I met her outside the security entrance and invited her to join me in the car.She stopped off at a PT Cruiser, pulled a pair of tortoise- framed sunglasses from the center console, and locked the door.She matched my stride to the car, no easy feat considering I was naturally taller than her.Her posture was bent slightly at the waist, causing her to propel forward in an awkward pitch.She balanced expertly upon five-inch platform wedges and came darn close to towering over my five-foot seven frame.I did a double take when I saw the size of her feet.No wonder she could balance on those boats.We settled into the car and I immediately turned off the stereo, not wanting to blast her with the greatest hits of Tom Jones.I drove from the parking lot to the access road to the highway in silence, wondering who was going to speak first.I side-glanced at Mallory and caught her staring at the compartment between our seats.When we stopped at the next traffic light I followed her stare.Eddie had left the sketches of the Puccetti statue half-rolled up between the seats.I had to teach that boy to clean up after himself.“Maybe I didn’t ask correctly this morning, but I am curious to know what brings you to Heist,” she said.Her approach was softer than earlier.I wondered what made the difference.“I’ve been in the industry for more than a decade.I worked at Bentley’s in New York.Just moved here recently.”“You were their handbag buyer?”“Shoes.”“A lot of the same vendors, I suppose,” she admitted.“So why are you here in Ribbon?”“I grew up here.My parents wanted to move to the west coast, and it seemed like a good idea to buy their house.The one I grew up in.” It sounded so insignificant when trying to explain it to a person who probably wasn’t interested.“Trying to go home again.Did it work?”“The jury’s still out.” I changed lanes to let an aggressive driver pass.“So why Heist?”I wasn’t sure if I should mention my brief work history with Tradava or not, but she could find out easily enough.“They recruited me after they found out I no longer worked at Tradava.”“I’m surprised nobody mentioned you worked at Tradava.”“I was only there briefly.” Mental note: stay vague on the details.“I’m still trying to figure out who gave them my name.”“It had to be Belle DuChamp.She’s from Tradava, and from what I hear she didn’t leave on good terms.I heard she’s very interested in crushing them.”“She was fired?”“You didn’t know? They caught her and the handbag manager getting it on in the board room.That’s why it’s so weird that you showed up.With Emily gone, I figured he was a shoe-in.”10I tried to keep the rest of our conversation to a minimum for the duration of the drive, because I couldn’t exactly stop and take notes.What was becoming apparent was that Mallory George was going to be able to offer me a wealth of information if I played the situation correctly.We arrived at Bag Lady and found Andi Holloway cradling her cell phone between her tipped head and hunched shoulder while she bought a diet RockStar energy drink from a vending machine in the lobby [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]