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His face darkened. “What’s there to tell?”
Oh, plenty, I was sure. “Humor me.”
He looked outside. For a few beats he seemed to be fascinated with the streetlamps gliding by.
“Over a decade ago, senator Ryan was a mayor. He came from old money and parents who had made a living on Capitol Hill, so politics has always been in his blood. My mother was on his cleaning staff. They had an affair. When she got pregnant, he kicked her out. Years later, I found out that he did a rinse and repeat with Hector’s mother. Over the years his political ambitions grew, and he set his sights on the Oval Office. That’s when he did a check on his past. There are a few things an aspiring candidate has to have. One is to show the public a picture-perfect family life. So he couldn’t risk a call girl looking for media attention. Hence the killing of that call girl.”
I gave this a little thought. “How does Sokolov fit into this story?”
“My mother knew him from back when she lived in Russia. They had still been in contact with each other. Later on, I learned that she’d asked him for money.” His jaw tightened. “She wanted a loan to pay for my college tuition.”
My stomach hurt from the emotionless way he told all of this. His tone was smooth, as if he was having an everydayconversation about the weather. But his eyes…Oh God, his eyes. They were tormented pools of emerald.
I crossed the interior of the limo to sit next to him, and put my head on his shoulder.
“I don’t know how to go about this,” I confessed. “Because a part of me just wants you to let this go so you can have peace. Another part of me, my vicious side, thinks that I would probably do the same if this had happened to my mother. I would want to go after the killer as well.”
He tensed for a moment. I remembered how I almost ordered a hit on Ted, my mother’s stalker. Had it not been for him, my mother would have never left me with Kristoff to go to the police in a whole different state to report Ted. She would have never been in that car accident.
“You could never be vicious,” he whispered. “It’s not in your nature.”
That was debatable. “You don’t know what I had planned for you,” I said, and lifted my head to look at him. “I was going to rob you blind and blow up your cars.”
He raised a brow.
“Each and every one of them,” I stipulated.
“What is mine is yours. You can blow up every car I own.”
***
The fundraiser was held at the ballroom of the opera house. The majestic columns at the front of the building, the line of cars directed by a valet, and the glamorous figures walking up the stairs all spoke of a posh occasion.
I stuck close to Kristoff as we went up the stairs, and at the top we were guided toward the main event room.
I’d chosen a maroon silk dress with Asian detailing. My hair was long and sleek instead of up in some elaborate bun. It didn’t resemble anything like what the folks roaming around themarble floors wore. I liked color in my life, and joy in my clothes. Black and boring simply wasn’t my style.
“So, what’s the senator like?” I said softly, after accepting a glass of champagne from a server.
Kristoff’s gaze scoured the floor. “I have no idea.”
I did a double take. “What? You’ve never met him before?”
He shook his head. “There was no reason to.”
But there was now? I had so many questions. “So you have no idea what kind of person he is?”
His eyelids lowered. “I know exactly what kind of person he is.”
The chill had returned to his voice. I didn’t like it one bit, but I couldn’t exactly complain. This was what I’d asked for, after all. I had demanded that he include me in his life, no more secrets. If I was all in, I had to accept this part of him as well.
As the evening progressed, the crowd didn’t exactly get rowdier, but people did seem to gravitate toward the auction area. Kristoff kept close to me, encircling me in his arms. Every now and then I noticed a lustful glance from a woman aimed at him. Some didn’t even seem to care that they were doing it right under my nose. Then a familiar face made an entrance. A hush fell over the crowd for a second, but then the gossip started circulating.
Evie Ryan had just entered the building. Kristoff’s arms tightened around me. I wondered what he was thinking right now. Was it resentment because his sister grew up to have a normal life? Was it pity because she was being hounded by the press?
I looked up at him. To my surprise, underneath his stoic expression there was a hint of pity.
A whisper reached my ears from a woman to our right. “I heard she was in the psych ward just a few days ago.”
