Fool Me Twice (Riley Wolfe 2)

I mean, I wasn’t in love with her or anything stupid like that. And I didn’t feel like it was my fault she was here. I didn’t ask for any of the crap Boniface and Stone had poured onto the two of us. But I had handled it, for both of us. I got the two of them out of action, and I got us both out alive. Me. It was totally impossible, but I did it, and if Monique got banged up, I’m really and truly sorry, absolutely—but it wasn’t my fault.

I had to say, though, that I couldn’t have done it without her help. I knew she’d been freaking out the whole time, but she got it done. She held on to her character, and she did the job, and we got away with it. I was grateful for that. Hell, I would tell her so to her face, just as soon as she woke up. She did an amazingly great job. When I delivered the fresco to Boniface, it was such a perfect copy that he really and truly thought it was the original.

Of course it wasn’t. It was Monique’s absolutely perfect copy, made from her perfect cartoon. Because come on: You can’t steal a fucking wall from the fucking Vatican.

But you can smuggle out that perfect cartoon. And you can take it to Frankfurt and transfer the image to plaster, pour on Dr. Sabharwal’s amazing polymer goo, and then cart the thing all the way to Boniface, the lying bastard. Served him right to get fooled by a fake. Because it was a fake. It had to be, and he should have known it. You can’t fucking steal a fucking wall from the fucking Vatican.

But guess what? You can steal the Urbino Bible. And I did. By the time Monique woke up, I would hav

e the cash for it, and she would have her share, like always. Maybe with a bonus for all the doctor time. Yeah, she’d yell for a while, and call me names, just like always. But I’d get her laughing again. I always did. And someday, when we were back to normal, she would finally give in and give me a replay of that one amazing night we’d had together. Maybe more than one night this time. She would get better, and it would happen. I knew it would. It was just a matter of time.

I sat down beside her bed to wait.