Page 54 of Merciless Daddy

“Without telling anyone.”

“That would have spoiled the test.”

“You went down two floors.”

“And returned.”

“I don’t care that you returned. I care that you left.”

“You’d rather I hadn’t come back? That can be arranged.”

“No, that’s not what I meant. God you’re impossible.”

“It’s pronounced, irresistible, remember?”

I looked at the open service door, the blocked camera, the fob in her hand.

“How?”

“The housekeeper’s master fob overrides the floor security during scheduled deliveries. The cart holds the fire door. It blocks the camera for fifty-two seconds if parked at that angle.” She pointed. “The lift opens on twenty-eight and twenty-seven without a second credential. Twenty-seven has an unlocked service stair.”

“You went to the stair.”

“I looked at it.”

“Why did you come back?”

She watched me.

It was the question underneath all the others, and she heard it.

“I could have continued to the garage,” she said.

“Yes.”

“You gave me a car. And a passport.”

“Yes.”

“You said I could leave.”

“I meant it.”

“Then why do you look ready to strangle somebody?”

“Because I did not know where you were. And just because I say you can leave, doesn’t mean I want you to leave.”

The words came rougher than I intended.

Something shifted in her expression. Pleasure, perhaps. Not kindness. Yelena took too much satisfaction in moving immovable things.

She turned the fob over in her fingers.

“Gianni used staff,” she said. “At Mill Basin. Catering, drivers, house employees. He finds whoever needs money or fears losing a job. If his men discover this route, they’ll coerce someone with access.”

I said nothing.

“Lucia,” she continued. “Or another servant. Someone without a gun. Someone who can be frightened into opening the lift and then blamed after your people find out.” She set the fob in my palm. “I’m not escaping through a hole that gets somebody else killed.”