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When Theo didn’t offer anything further, I said, “Is that why you’re doing this?”
“Doing what?”
“Look buddy, I’m here on this plane with you because you went out of your way to find me in order to tell me to go away. Except you secretly wanted me to come with you, since out there on the docks, you had your own plan despite me thinking I was in control. Now I’m here, and you know what I’m after.” I was interrupted when Andrea bent between us and set down our drinks, but continued as soon as her airy perfume departed, “So, being obtuse may work with others, but not with me. Kai’s no longer beside me, there’s no further FBI or police involvement, so be straight and explain what your true motives are.”
Whew. Through my pounding heart, I reached for my drink and took a long, fueling gulp. That was the longest I’d ever looked straight into his eyes and didn’t flinch away from the hurt.
“That’s only fair,” he said, then bent forward. “But let me be clear. You’re with me because you’re a liability.”
His words hit me. Though I didn’t expect niceties from him, Theo’s perception was still affecting.
“If you kept running games on your own, you were going to be killed. There was already talk in the wrong circles about taking care of a woman who was making too much money.”
“And you had to assume that was me.”
“There aren’t many women who do what you do.”
“So what? Because I’m good at poker, I have to die?”
“No.” Theo tipped his bourbon to his lips. “But you have to admit you were losing your subtlety. Getting careless. And that’s when they’d swoop in.”
My cheeks went hot. “I take severe offense—”
“You offered your body in exchange for a bet.”
Everything went quiet. “That was premeditated,” I nearly whispered. “And under control.”
“You don’t think it was going too far?”
“Not that I have to explain it to you,” I said through my teeth, “But Neri was heavily researched, all my actions carefully implemented and timed. He wasn’t going to hurt me.”
“But you were willing to do whatever it took.”
I detected the undercurrent of meaning, and my lips parted. “Do you really think I was willing to have sex with him?”
In an instant, Theo went from staring at me to directing his attention out the window, I knew.Oh my God.
“You wanted to find my brother that badly,” he said.
I caught the immediate defense before the sound left my throat. I could have stood over him, pointed my finger, and shouted,how dare you judge me? You don’t have the first sense of how I’m feeling or what it takes to be a solitary woman in this dangerous industry, or how many times I’ve been scared senseless. Nor do you even want to think on why my relations with Neri would bother your ego so damned much.But,the part of me that wanted to harm him, to exploit his flaws and protect my weaknesses, won out. So instead, I countered with, “So what if I did?”
He lazily turned his attention back to me, whatever thoughts whirring in his mind drawing down the shutters in his expression. “And what is it they say about best laid plans?”
“Is this why you wanted me here? To criticize my strategies?”
“If you consider prostituting yourself to be a strategy.”
There it was. That flare of jealousy—I hoped, dreamed, denied—was there, cracking through his concrete. The question was whether I was willing to exploit the flaw and spread it further.
“Well, it got your attention, meaning I’m as close as I’ve ever come, so I guess it worked.”
“You were brash before. Now you’ve claimed idiocy.”
I opened my mouth to snap at him, but the pilot had come out and was aiming for our seats. I clamped my mouth shut so hard it had sound, but I certainly didn’t stop glaring at Theo, even while the pilot introduced himself as Steve and said that the skies to London looked good and we shouldn’t be more than eight, eight and a half hours, tops.
“Don’t pretend like you can get into my head the way you did before,” I seethed as soon as Captain Steve left. “I’ve been more successful than you and Kai combined—I’m sorry, London?” My back went stiff. “Why are we going to London?”
Theo ignored all my statements, but he stayed steady on me. So much so that it was unsettling and alluring all at once. “Admit that you were looking for me,” he said.
