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Turning back to the basin, I turned off the running water, dragged my hands through my hair, and met her direct gaze in the mirror’s reflection. “Find Rufie. Kill him.”
Lila chuckled. “Simple. Stupid as well.”
“Stupid?”
She looked at me as if I was a five-year-old throwing a tantrum. “You kill him, you can never go back to Veronica.”
I grabbed the towel beside the basin and dried my hands. “Who said I’m going back to Ronnie?”
She laughed again. “Ronnie is the reason you live. The reason you breathe. You’re going back to her. So let’s make sure you go back to her, not the Pratt you think you are now, okay? You haven’t been Tripwire for a long time. Do you understand?”
Tossing the towel aside, I turned to face her. “Exactly how many years did you spend as a psychiatrist between your time as a CIA agent, a bodyguard, a veterinarian, and all those other jobs you won’t tell me about?”
A delicate snort filled the small room. “Bite me.”
I studied her. She looked as calm as she always did, but there was an underlying edge to her I hadn’t seen in a long time. An agitation.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Of course.”
I didn’t believe her. “Is Steve okay?”
At her ex-husband’s name, she grew still. “They didn’t hurt him. They did hurt his sister however.”
I swallowed. “That’s how they squashed the info I gave him? About Dewey and Kitchner and Trinity?”
She sighed. “Yes.”
I could feel her pain. Her ex-husband’s sister was the woman Lila came out for. She loved them both equally.
“Is she okay?”
“She’s in the hospital, in an induced coma with a broken cheekbone and punctured lung, but the doctor says she will recover.” Her eyes turned flinty. “Car accident, the report says. When I find who is responsible for said car accident, they will discover what it’s like to have a punctured lung. And a ruptured spleen. And a perforated bowel.”
I swallowed again. I had no doubt whoever had threatened Steve’s sister was now a walking corpse. The fact Lila was here with me, helping me with my Trinity problem made what was coming their way all the bleaker. Lila was at her most impressive when she had time to ponder.
“I’m sorry, Lila.”
She waved a hand at me. “You didn’t do this. Now, let’s get serious. What are your plans? I can’t keep you alive for Veronica if they really are as simple as find Rufie and kill him.”
It took us an hour to plan. Lila kept me grounded. Kept me in the room. Kept my head where it should be. However, no matter how much I wanted to believe she was right, that I would be able to return to Ronnie the guy she’d fallen in love with, I couldn’t. Life didn’t give guys like me fairytale endings. But whatever ending waited for me, I’d face it well, knowing Ronnie was going to be safe.
My cell vibrated more than once during the hour.
Every time it did, Lila raised her eyebrows at me, her expression expectant and almost condescending.
“Yeah, yeah,” I snarled at her. “Blow me.”
She rolled her eyes. “You know I don’t swing that way.”
“You are the scariest lesbian I’ve ever known,” I said. In fact, when the need arose, Lila was the scariest person I’ve ever known, regardless of gender and sexual preference. But I wasn’t going to tell her that and give her a big head.
She smiled. “Thank you.”
As much as I was focused on the plan for confronting Rufie and Trinity, I couldn’t stop thinking about Ronnie.
What was she doing? How pissed at me was she? Did she hate me yet?
