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Feeling stung and betrayed, she said, “But you seemed so nice. I truly believed you were trying to help.”
“I was. Drex was coming on a little strong.”
“He does that.” She shifted her gaze to Drex, wondering if his fellow agents knew how strongly he had come on to her in the parking garage. He was still watching her with cool contempt, as though she were responsible for his actions, for the kiss. He didn’t look away from her until Locke addressed him.
“You said you could shed light?”
Drex seemed to shake off whatever else he was thinking and got down to the matter at hand. “Has anybody checked Elaine Conner’s financial portfolio, her bank accounts?”
“It was on another team’s to-do list,” Menundez said.
“Let me tell you what they’ll find.” Drex formed an O with his fingers and thumb. “Zero. Zilch. He cleans them out. He kills them. He vanishes.”
“You can’t mean Jasper.”
Drex ignored Talia’s outcry and said to his cohorts, “Take these gentlemen into the living area and start briefing them. We’ll be there in a minute.”
Locke looked uncertain about leaving her alone with Drex, but Menundez fell into step behind Drex’s men. Locke followed. She waited until they were out of earshot before she launched into Drex. “You’ve been spying on us?”
“Most of it was boring. I didn’t bug your bedroom.”
“You bastard.”
“But I make damn good corn on the cob.”
Incensed, she spun away from him. “I want to hear what they’re saying.”
“Wait. Did you burn your hand?”
She looked back at him, wondering how he knew.
“The kettle whistled. You cried out.”
“Never mind my hand.” She placed it behind her back. “I want to know what’s going on. First Elaine…” Grief, exhaustion, dismay, fear, and another dozen emotions avalanched and overwhelmed her. Hot tears filled her eyes. Her voice cracked. “I hate you.”
“Let me see your hand.”
She didn’t move, so he went to her and reached behind her back. His touch wasn’t rough, but still she flinched as he took hold of her hand. He examined the red splotch on the back of it, then pulled her over to the sink, turned on the cold water tap, and guided her hand beneath the stream. “Don’t move.”
She wanted to tell him to fuck off, but the cold water brought instant relief, so she stayed. He got ice cubes from the dispenser in the door of the refrigerator and returned with them. Placing his hand beneath hers, palm to palm, he supported it while gently rubbing the ice cubes across the burn.
She stared at their joined hands as the water spilled over them, became hypnotized by the slow circles he drew on the back of her hand with the ice cubes. “Don’t be nice to me,” she said, her voice hoarse. “You’re ruining my life.”
“You ruined your life the day you went in cahoots with J
asper, whom I first came to know as Weston Graham.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. None of it.”
His eyes bored into hers. “Where is he, Talia?”
“Atlanta. If you were listening in, you no doubt heard us laying plans last night. He and I—”
“He’s not in Atlanta. He never went. He never intended to.”
“You’re trying to trick me like you’ve been doing since I met you.” She tried to pull her hand away, but he curled his fingers up, linking them with hers and keeping her in place.
“Listen to me.” His voice was low and emphatic. “All those questions the detectives put to you about Jasper, where he was tonight, and so forth? They already knew the answers. And your answers didn’t mesh with what they know for fact.
