Toly sighed, gathered himself, glanced around at their surroundings. Pretty. Peaceful. A curtain twitched in an upstairs window, and he wondered how voracious the gossip network was here.
Reese reached the crosswalk opposite them and pressed the button. Waited. A Porsche rolled by, its gray-haired driver peering at their cheap suits suspiciously as he went.
“You want to be in the thick of it, don’t you?” Tenny asked, startling him.
He glanced over, finally, and didn’t appreciate the knowing expression aimed his way, like Tenny could see straight into his head, X-ray vision. “What?”
Tenny smirked. “Going around to all your old haunts, poking into dangerous spider holes: you wish it was you going, don’t you?”
Toly didn’t answer.
Tenny shrugged and glanced toward Reese, who’d finally gotten the green light to cross. “I’d want to, if it was me.”
“Yeah, well, you’re crazy.”
He barked a sharp, pleased laugh.
Overhead, clouds scudded across the sun, plunging the afternoon into shadow, and Toly found it fitting, given their current circumstances.
Twenty
When they left Hauser’s Pub, Ian got on the phone, and spoke one word into it: “Camelot.” Everything that followed made it abundantly clear that since the Ritz-Carlton fiasco of several weeks ago, steps had been taken to acquire a proper safehouse. Or, in this case, a safe penthouse.
It was an old, stately building, with Gothic windows, gargoyles, copper flashing, and dozens of steep eaves along its jagged roofline. Sight of its pale stone façade prompted Miles to whistle and say, “Damn.Ghostbustersmuch?”
Ian had footed the bill, obviously.
“Keycard access at every entry point,” he explained, when Bruce flashed theirs in the underground garage. “Doormen round the clock, concierge service, gym, restaurant, bar, dry cleaning, housekeeping. You’d never have to leave, if you fancied becoming a shut-in.”
“Not as if I have a choice, is it?”
“It’s pretty,” Cass said, glumly. She’d already learned she’d have to keep out of school for a few days, at least.
Itwaspretty – stunning, in fact, especially the view from the rooftop terrace off the kitchen, which overlooked an impressive wedge of Park.
Raven stood at its weather-eaten stone rail and raked her hair off her face, wind buffeting her this high up above the city. The air was cold, but she relished its bite, the way it made her feel small in a natural, non-threatening way.
She’d stood long enough for her nose and fingers to grow cold, her toes starting to numb inside the thin leather of her boots, when Ian joined her.
“It would seem that the extensively stocked snack cabinet and big-screen television have made up for keeping your sister out of school,” he said with a quiet chuckle.
“She’s horribly easy to bribe.” She tucked her hair back again, and turned so she could regard Ian’s elegant profile against the silver-pink dimming of evening. The ends of his hair danced across his shoulders, but he’d slicked the front back with so much pomade that it remained sleek along his skull. At another time, she might have teased him for it, but wasn’t in the mood, now. “It’s one of the things that terrifies me most about her getting older and going out on her own. I just know she’s going to pick the most unsuitable men to date.”
“Hm.” He turned toward her, grin lurking in the corners of his mouth. “Speaking of unsuitable men…”
“Now issonot the time.”
“Right.”
But, now that she was thinking about it…
She let her gaze sweep the terrace, its wide, old flagstones, its iron benches, planter beds, its jacuzzi, and said, “Is there external rooftop access up here?”
“You mean: can someone get on the terrace without coming up through the building?”
“Yes.”
He turned fully, so he could give her a considering look. “You know, youcouldjust invite him up in the elevator, like a proper date.”
