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“And after all this is over, you and I can sit down with a beer and figure out these little-girl feelings you’re having about your soon-to-be ex—ow, ow, okay!” Eli shouted as Montgomery gave him several solid punches on the arm.
They climbed out of the cart and started searching along either side of the tunnel. After a few minutes, they found a four-inch panel set seamlessly into the tunnel’s curved concrete wall.
“There should be a smaller panel…” Eli murmured, consulting an app on his phone, then crouching down. “Ha! Here it is.”
He pushed the pressure opening and typed in a code. A deep-throated metallic clunk echoed under their feet and down the tunnel behind them. The panel slid open in a circle from the left to the right and disappeared under their feet. Another clunk sounded, and they backed away as a row of bars trundled out of the opening on the left and continued to the right, locking into place.
“Jesus, this really is some James Bond shit.” Montgomery grasped a bar and pulled on it. It was solid.
“Very Double-Oh-Seven,” Eli agreed. He spun to run the short distance to the cart. “I’m driving back so I can avoid a head injury.”
They climbed in, and as they returned to Topkapi, the tension from earlier settled back over Montgomery.
“If I ask you not to be a jerk, would you give me some actual advice?” he asked.
“I like how your request starts with an insult,” Eli said.
“That wasn’t even close, and you know it,” he replied.
“True.” Eli laughed. “Okay, go ahead.”
Montgomery looked away, searching for the right words.
“I’m guessing it’s about Hartley,” Eli prompted.
Montgomery tipped his head from one side to the other as he thought. At least Eli didn’t sound mocking.
“Or is it about the divorce? Second thoughts about partnering with her to find Lucas?” Eli turned to face him. “Man, you gotta give me some hint.”
“It’s about Hartley,” Montgomery admitted, cringing inside as Eli’s words aboutlittle-girlfeelings came back to haunt him.
“Okay. Hartley. She signed the papers fast. So are you…wondering if it’s what you really want?”
Montgomery nodded, a bitter taste on his tongue. “Kind of. It was a mistake to marry her from the start.”
“There’s your answer,” Eli said, holding his hands out.
“It feels rushed, like we still have things we should hash out.” But that didn’t feel right. They’d shared some things last night. He doubted she wanted to share more.
“Are you wondering how things go on from here?” Eli asked.
He frowned, but nodded. “Something like that. I don’t hate her. I don’t think I ever did, now that I think about it. She seems different after last night. It’s like we’re strangers.”
That confused him. They’d learned more about each other, and yet they seemed more distant.
“No problem. After everything here is settled, go to China, then come back and start a friends-with-benefits kind of thing,” Eli suggested. “Or exes with benefits. Or exes with no benefits. Dealer’s choice, as we say in the poker game.”
Montgomery couldn’t help but smirk at Eli’s attempt at advice. “The idea isn’t completely ridiculous,” he noted. “But I doubt Hartley’s going to agree to any of that.”
A moment of silence passed. “Look, man. We’re tracking down a killer. You can’t let this get in your head. Let’s do this. Then you can go to Beijing, find a sexy escort, and start forgetting you ever met the woman.”
Montgomery nodded. That sounded doable.
“If you can’t clear your head, I’ll bite the bullet and let her come with me on the search. That way she’s out of your orbit,” Eli offered.
But Montgomery shook his head. “The teams are set,” he said. “I can handle it.”
“I know you, brother. You sulk, then you overthink things, then you break shit.”
