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“You explain things better than I do,” he remarked.
“This must be a big request that’s coming from you because, technically, I owe you twice. Once for ruining the beautiful personal momentum that was building between us with guilt for being deceitful, and once for spying on you.”
“You need to trick Sonny one final time,” Thomas told her. He said it flatly. He wanted the lack of emotion to exacerbate the seriousness.
“Basically, you are giving me a suicide mission that will get my father killed too.”
“No. I want you to continue to report to Sonny exactly how you’ve been reporting. The small difference is you’ll be helping me get what I want.”
“You better tell me what it is you want,” she retorted. “Contrary to how intuitive you accuse me of being, I am having bad luck when it comes to guessing these days.”
“I want to discover Sonny’s end game. I want Sonny’s motives to be laid out loud and clear for me.”
“You do realize that this goes against my better judgment in so many ways, right? I mean, even though I have been less than honest, what you are asking is not me. Spying is not me. Now, I spied for Sonny, so of course, I will for you, but I doubt it’s going to do anyone any good. I was doing it to save my father, and I am so bad at it that you caught on right out of the gate. Double spying is hard for me to fathom when I have just failed miserably.”
Thomas adjusted his seat, grabbed Lorena’s hands with his hands, and held them before speaking.
“You proved your loyalty by confessing and, most importantly, explaining your deception and your feelings for me. I am staking my claim. You belong to me now.”
“I see. I thought we were past all this?” she said flatly.
“Past what? Asking and then claiming the retribution you owe me for double-crossing me?”
“I am trying to explain that your request goes against my better judgment. I ruined everything by trying to use deception, which is clearly not me, and now you want me to go back to being deceptive. This is what you want?”
“You are going to help me, and I know you want to help me get a clear picture of Sonny’s motives and his end game. There’s no room for argument right now.”
Lorena closed her eyes before speaking, then she opened them again and stared at the back wall of the office for what seemed to be the longest time.
“You are funny,” she told him. “You are also cunning and very possessive.”
Thomas didn’t reply to that. He could see the wheels turning in her mind, that she was wrapping more words around what she was trying to say, and if he said anything more right then it would derail her and make him look like he was being defensive.
“You’re wanting to keep me close,” Lorena continued. “Getting me to help you doesn’t pay you back for deceiving you. It helps you keep me without you feeling like a doormat or that you caved in.”
“Maybe,” he told her. “It could also be I am trying to give you an on-ramp for sticking around without feeling like a fraud. You know, a way to work your way back into my good graces.”
“Okay, fine,” she snapped. “You got pride, I got pride. We both want me to stay close, we both want to keep working together, and we both want this personal thing between us to grow.”
“Are you trying to say that, for now, we are agreeing to agree?” he asked. He already knew the answer. He wanted to hear her say it.
The late afternoon light streamed through the blinds just enough to highlight the freckles that spanned her face and the lighter tones in her hair. It was a difficult conversation, but he felt good being there.
It felt like he had gotten his power back. It was liberating to let his cunningness and possessiveness have full sway. The lion was jacked up, excited, and pacing back and forth.
“I guess I am most interested in learning how you want to play this,” she stated. “Sonny has no soul. Trickery is his wheelhouse. I am not fond of tricking a fox from inside the fox’s den. Personally, I don’t think it can be done.”
“I agree with what you are implying,” Thomas told her. “Hold that thought,” he added.
Then Thomas got up from her desk, went to the break room, and brewed another coffee for them.
“No Oreos?” she asked when he returned to her desk.
“You are so correct with what you said a few minutes ago,” he told her. “We are not going to chase the rabbit into the briar patch nor try to bamboozle the fox in the fox’s den.”
“I am glad we agree,” she said.
“We are going to give him enough rope to hang himself,” Thomas added.
