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At least he listened. He raised his hand. “Leonard, that’senough.”
He spoke smoothly and evenly, but his assistant jerked back as if Marco had barked the order. Kylie shoved herself upright, swiping at the bits of grass clinging to her tank top and bleached cutoffs. The second she was on her feet, she grabbed me in a hug. I squeezed her back, feeling steady for the first time since I’d wokenup.
The sensation didn’t last. Marco cleared his throat. “Can I ask your friend exactly how she foundus?”
Kylie drew back, but she kept one arm slung around me protectively. She was half a foot shorter than me and wiry besides that, but I knew how fiercely she could fight if she hadto.
“I was coming to the bar to meet up with Ren,” she said. “And I saw your guy here stuffing her in the back of a car. She was obviously unconscious. He drove off before I caught up, but I got the license plate. From there...” Her lips curled into a smirk. “Let’s just say I know people who know how to get into the right databases. And traffic cams areawesome.”
Marco’s gaze flicked to the traffic lights at the end of the long suburban block. He shook his head, looking almost amused. Kylie really did know people—lots of people. Pretty much anything you needed, she could find someone who could do it. She’d racked up a lot of favors over theyears.
Believe me, I don’t even like most of ‘em, she’d said to me one time, halfway through a bottle of cheap wine.But it’s better getting in with people and knowing how far you can trust ‘em than never knowing what they might be upto.
“And are the police actually on their way?” Marcoasked.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Kylie shot back, but I could tell from the twitch of her eyes that she was bluffing. Neither of us had a whole lot of faith in cops. She’d been trying to rescue me on herown.
It seemed Marco could read the lie too. “Well, you’ve found Ren, and you can see that she’s all right,” he said. “The situation is complicated. And it doesn’t involve you. So as wonderful as it was that you dropped by, I’ll have to ask you to leavenow.”
Kylie jutted out her chin. “Uh-uh. No way. There’s obviously something sketchy going on here. Come on, Ren. Let’svamoose.”
We could. Marco didn’t make any move to stop me, just looked at me questioningly. Waiting to see what I would do. Seeing that strengthened myresolve.
“I can’t go yet,” I told Kylie. “I need to talk with Marco somemore.”
She tugged me around to face her. “Are you kidding me? The guy seems like a totalscammer.”
I swallowed hard. “He knows something about my mom,” Isaid.
Kylie’s eyes widened. I didn’t talk about Mom very much with anyone, but my best friend had heard by far the most. And she was good at reading me even when I didn’t want to show how I was feeling, so she probably had a better idea of how much my mother’s disappearance haunted me than I’d haveliked.
“Okay,” she said. “I get that. But I don’t want to leave you alone with these dudes either. If you’re staying, I’mstaying.”
Of course she’d say that. My throat tightened. There wasn’t any point in arguing with her. I turned to Marco. “Anything you’re going to say to me, Kylie can hear it too. That’s thedeal.”
We stared each other down for half a minute. Then Marco chuckled. “All right. This should be interesting. Come on in. We’ll have a brunchparty.”
He sauntered back to the front door without even checking to see if we were going to follow. I made a face at his back, but I hurried along behind him. Kylie wrapped her hand aroundmine.
“You’re sure he’s legit?” she murmured tome.
“He knew things he couldn’t otherwise.” Like my full name, which I’d never told even Kylie. And that it’d been sixteen years since Mom and I had come to thecity.
A memory swam up from my birthday just a couple days after we’d first arrived in our East Village apartment, the rooms still bare, a cake with five candles on the floor between Mom and me.Make a wish. You can ask for anything you want. We’re startingnew.
Marco led us into a sitting room on the first floor. Like the bedroom I’d woken up in, the furniture was all tasteful, expensive-looking antiques. Kylie and I sat next to each other on a velvet-cushionedsettee.
A middle-aged woman with tightly curled gray-blond hair glided into the room and set plates heaped with sausages, scrambled eggs, and buttered toast on the mahogany coffee table in front of us. The hearty smell set my mouth watering. I hadn’t eaten since yesterday’s mid-afternoon snack. I grabbed one of the plates and a fork that looked like actualsilverware and dugin.
Kylie eyed the spread. “Shit, that does look good.” She picked up a plate and shoveled a forkful off eggs into her mouth. Her eyes rolled back with an ecstatic expression. Then she jabbed her fork toward Marco. He was leaning against the mantle of the empty fireplace, his arms casually crossed in front of him, watching us with a littlesmile.
“So what’s your news about Ren’s mom?” Kylie said. “We’ve got ears even if we’reeating.”
I lifted my head, gulping a piece of sausage. Marco ran his thumb over his perfect, firm lips. I was definitely not thinking about what it’d be like to kiss them while I waited on the edge of my seat for his answer. My heart had started thuddingagain.
“Maybe first I should ask whatyouknow about her,” he said in his usual lighttone.
“Not much,” Kylie said. “Only what Ren’s told me. She was already out of the picture when I came intoit.”
