“Then I’ll do it,” I said immediately. I didn’t even have to think. “I’ll go. Maeve can show me where.”
I hadn’t realized Maeve was awake until she spoke in Luxembourgish. She must have been listening, curled up in the hammock, silent as a shadow while still taking in every single thing we were saying.
She’d had plenty of practice at that.
Now I whipped out the translation app on my phone, but she repeated what she’d said in French before I had the chance.
“I know exactly where to go in the house.”
“But how?”I asked, also in French, as Erica and Milagros watched us with concern, not daring to interrupt to ask for a translation.“I thought you weren’t allowed to leave the room.”
“My friend told me all about it,”she replied.“She went everywhere. Resi liked her best. She told her everything. She let her go everywhere.”
“Friend?”I asked warily.“What friend?”
This time, Maeve smiled. “Lemaya.”
HIM
That evening, I got a call from one of the assistants, telling me to go down to the parking lot. I did, just as a silver Porsche convertible—gleaming so bright in the evening sunlight that it hurt my eyes—sped from around the corner and up the circular drive. The arrival of the car surprised me. The identity of the driver did not.
I just stood there, staring at the model, blinking. My mouth was probably hanging open, but I didn’t care.
“Is that?—”
Langer raised his dark sunglasses and nodded. “It’s a nice day and I’ve had my eye on this one for a while, so I got it for a twenty-four-hour test drive,” he explained. “Get in.”
I had no specific reason to object other than spite, and my feelings of spite toward Langer, at this point, weren’t nearly as strong as the almost supernatural draw I was feeling toward this car. My hands were practically shaking as I removed my suit jacket and shoved it in the minimal space behind the two black leather seats, rolling up the sleeves of my shirt. I wasn’t exactly nostalgic for my old castoff clothes, but one thing was certain: in the desert heat, keeping cool in jackets and dress shirts—no matter how awesome they looked—was a lost cause.
Of course it also occurred to me right away that this might be an opportunity to get answers. I had used the rest of my time at work that week to look for them, firing up the tablet I’d left charging, and experimenting to see which of the passwords worked where. Some of them didn’t work, which I’d expected. Some of them revealed files behind additional security that I’d need to try to hack into. And some unlocked some files so huge that it would take days to make any sense of them. Many appeared to be financial. Resi had wanted access to the books and been shut down, so it wouldn’t surprise me if she—and Corey—had been working on finding another way in. Unfortunately—though calculus had come easily—finance, for someone who had never had any money, had been easy not to waste time on trying to understand. So before I got much further, I had to go to school.
Good thing I’d always wanted to go to school.
As for Lemaya, by the time I got back from my spying expedition, she was gone, and I hadn’t seen her all week. Of course Resi ordering her to be imprisoned, tortured, and/orkilled because she’d allowed me to sneak away from the tour wasn’t the only possibility, but it was definitely a possibility.
Fucking hell, was there any woman I’d ever interacted with whose life I didn’t end up ruining?
I sank into the seat, hoping Langer couldn’t tell that I’d never been in a convertible before. Langer didn’t say anything as he slammed on the gas pedal and I savored the sound that beautiful German engineering made as it roared to life. Another thing I could get used to but shouldn’t. And then, as suddenly as a pair of screeching tires, I stopped. I wasn’t going on any joyrides. Not today. “Max, wait. I—” I bit my lip.
“She’s fine.”
“What?”
“Keith’s daughter. Curly Sue. Loulou. That’s what he calls her, anyway. I forgot what the hell her real name is.” He glanced over.
“Louisa,” I said faintly, burying my head in my hand and sinking into the soft leather seat as he pulled out onto the highway at top speed. I kept my eyes on the pavement melting away beneath the tires as saguaros flew by against the backdrop of the ever-distant mountains. “How do you know?”
“I talked to him this afternoon. I know you think I’m lying because you always do, but I’ll even show you the message he sent me. He mentions her by name.”
“No,” I said weakly. “I don’t need to see it.”
So Resi’s claws hadn’t reached Louisa. Yet. I felt the tight knot of dread in my chest that had been my companion since that afternoon fade by a few degrees. Maybe for a few hours, I could have only two people to worry about instead of three.
“And I’ll ask about her again tomorrow.”
“He’ll get suspicious,” I muttered, hating to admit that Langer was again offering the worst thing in the world he couldpossibly offer to someone who had long ago vowed to kill him: kindness.
“No, he won’t. Besides, I see you pining over her every damn day like the lovesick teenager you are while failing to offer any better ideas. And, anyway, I’m good at this shit.”
