Page 88 of Cruel Lies

His head snaps up at that. "How do you?—?"

"I know a lot of things, Todd. It's how I've stayed alive as long as I have." I eye him warily. "So let me give you some advice: You made a threat you can't back up. To a woman under my protection. I'd advise you not to do that again."

"Underyour—" He laughs deliriously. "Do you hear yourself? You sound like a mob movie."

I smile at him. I let it reach my eyes this time, the whole thing, everything under the suit.

Todd stops laughing.

"Go home," I suggest. "While you still have legs that can get you there."

His jaw drops in horror. Then, stumbling over his own feet, he goes. He trips past me, keeping as much distance as the hallway allows, and he doesn't dare say another word. I watch him push out through the doors into the noise and the light.

I count to ten, and then I follow him out.

He's already gone by the time I hit the floor. So is Paula. I don't have to ask to understand that the women must have spoken. I can read it off Cali the second I see her, standing at the edge of the dance floor with the gold octopus on her wrist and a look on her face I haven't seen before.

She handled it herself.

Fucking hell, she's a marvel.

I have never wanted anything the way I want to give this woman the entire world.

We dance the last song. Then I get her out through a side exit so the cameras don't get another go at her. Paolo brings the car around, and we're on the bridge before either of us says much.

She's quiet. Not the good quiet from the dance floor. This one concerns me.

I watch her out of the corner of my eye. She's got her hands folded in her lap, very still, her chin's up, and she keeps her eyes forward through sheer force of will.

"You did well tonight," I say. "That couldn't have been easy."

"It was fine," she answers. "I'm fine."

"I didn't ask if you were fine,kotyonok.I know you are."

That gets a small breath out of her, almost a laugh. She looks down at her hands.

"He looked so small," she says after a minute. "Todd. I keep thinking about it. For ten years, I made myself small so he couldbe big, and tonight, he was just… small. On his own. Without me holding him up." She shakes her head. "I don't know why that's the thing that's getting to me."

"Because you gave him something for ten years," I say, "and now, you can see exactly what it was worth. Which was not much."

She turns and looks at me. Her eyes are bright, wet at the edges, and I can tell she's furious about it.

"I'm not going to cry over Todd Bradshaw," she declares.

"No one's asking you to."

"I don't cry. I didn't cry at any point in this whole process, and I'm not starting now." She glares at me. "I mean it."

"I believe you, Calista."

She squints at me a second longer, waiting for the argument, but when it doesn't come, the tension in her shoulders lets go a quarter inch.

The car pulls up in front of her brownstone. The windows are dark. She doesn't reach for the handle.

"You don't have to come in," she says.

"I wasn't going to."