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“Of course. Men. What can you do?”
Tristan marched around the couch and fell back into the sofa chair. “What did you mean before? What lesson? What is he teaching you?”
“Hand-to-hand. We used one of the training rooms downstairs. I’m getting better. I even managed to knock him over a few times when I wasn’t making an ass out of myself.”
“Those training rooms are for my people, not—”
“What’s the harm if no one is using them?” Katia settled on his armrest.
“Perhaps someone would have used them if they hadn’t been inside. I harp on you for ages about learning to defend yourself, and you ignore me. You spend a few days with Dixon, and now you spend hours in the gym each day?”
“It wasn’t hours, Tristan. I don’t have the time for it right now. Not for training, and not to argue with you. Dixon and I need to work.”
“Work? That was what you were doing when we walked in?”
Katia’s eyes pinged back and forth, quietly watching the fight.
Lila did the only thing she could do when faced with a moody Tristan. She ignored him. Dropping her head, she returned to the Alleanza database. If Camille had been trained by the Italian military, she must be in the database somewhere.
Tristan crossed his arms over his chest. “Your silence speaks volumes.”
“Perhaps we should work back at the oracle’s compound.” She poked Dixon to get his attention. Unfortunately, she hit the same spot that had given him fits the night before.
He offered a little twitch and a chuckle, slapping her hand away.
“Stay. Let us help,” Katia said. “What are you working on now?”
“We’re digging into a few bios, trying to find proof that someone is not who she seems.”
“I like reading people’s bios. I’m incredibly nosy.”
“How nosy?”
“Very,” she replied, her eyes shining.
“Okay, take that tablet.” Lila pointed at one she’d used a few hours before. “Maybe you’ll see something we missed, something weird that doesn’t seem quite right. You might be able to lead us to her friend. Both are up to no good.”
Katia grabbed the tablet and plopped her feet on the coffee table.
Tristan frowned. “We have other things to work on tonight, Katia.”
“We do not. We’re just double-checking that your people have fixed the heat in a few workborn slums. We don’t even have to. Your people have managed their work very well for months without your supervision.”
“You’d rather help them than me?”
“Of course not, dear, I’m just being neighborly.” Katia winked at Lila. “Do you see what I have to put up with?”
“What you have to put up with? I’m making sure that people in the neighborhood are warm this winter, people who appreciate my efforts. You? You’re wasting your time. She’s just humoring you.”
Katia whipped her head around. “At least she’s being polite.”
“Polite? Polite people don’t waste your time. Reading a bio? Seriously?”
Lila nodded. “Another pair of eyes is always helpful. I’m not sure what else either of you can do at the moment. Unless you can speak Portuguese, Spanish, or French, then—”
“I speak and write perfect French,” Tristan snapped. “I’m not completely ignorant.”
A false smile spread across Katia’s face. “I guess that makes me completely ignorant, then.”
