“He won’t let this one slide,” I stated the obvious. “Not even given the advantageous fact that I’m still breathing.” I shook my head. “We’re in deep, buddy. Like up to our chests in quicksand and sinking fast. All it’ll take is one call from Amano to Dane and—” I lost my train of thought as I studied a photo with a stage setting, a podium, palm trees in the background … and a semi-familiar visage in the foreground.
“What’s wrong?” Kyle asked.
I handed over the printout. “Doesn’t that look a bit like Ethan? I mean, a million years ago, but still.”
“Yeah. Sort of.”
Recalling that Dane had once said Ethan was a renowned financial forecaster, I realized it wasn’t out of the ordinary for him to be at one or more of these summits. So this wasn’t exactly a clue for me to latch on to.
I set the page aside. Sifted through some more.
“Anyway,” I continued, picking up my previous stream of consciousness. “Just because our adventure with Wayne Horton yielded excellent results—seriously, that asshole will be doing more time than Manson if all goes well—Dane will likely go postal on us himself.”
“So this would be the time for you to use your feminine wiles, marital charms, whatever.” Kyle smirked.
I balled a piece of paper and tossed it at him. “Smart-ass. It doesn’t work that way.”
Well, most of the time it did.
I considered the predicament. Then said, “You’re right. I’ll have to calm him down before he gets crazy. Especially when he sees you. He’ll want to blame you for corrupting me.”
“I rocked that last part of the confession scenario with Horton,” Kyle reminded me. “Don’t I get props for that?”
“From me? Certainly. From the FBI, sure. From Dane and Amano?” I gave Kyle a dubious look. “You can’t tell me you aren’t feeling the freeze-out from Amano when he’s not punishing you under the guise of mentorship.”
“Yeah.” He scowled. “Not so cool. At the same time, why can’t Dane be impressed? Glad that Amano taught me so well? Thrilled I was able to channel all of that tutelage into something worthwhile?”
“Because we went against his wishes. And because it could have been much more dangerous. Wayne could’ve pulled a gun on me.”
“Not in front of all those people. And Price and Johnson were there, anyway.” Kyle turned angsty. “Dane’ll think I went off half-cocked after I swore I wouldn’t, right?”
“We both took a chance,” I said, commiserating with him. “Am I proud of us living a little too much in the red zone? No. I’m pretty rocked to the core about the whole thing. I have Dane and Amsel to think of. What am I doing playing Lara Croft when I have so much at stake? Then again.” I shook my head and moved away. Amsel had zonked out and the room was quiet. I sank into my chair and said, “Don’t I have the right to protect my family, too?”
“I’m not exactly in favor of you putting yourself in jeopardy,” Kyle confessed. “But I understand the reasoning behind it. And something had to be done about Horton. Sooner rather than later.”
“Deep down, I’m hoping Dane and Amano will realize how impossible it is to just ‘sit tight.’ To do whatever we’re told when someone like Wayne Horton is out there wreaking lethal havoc.”
I tapped my fingertips on my leather blotter. “I’m not cavalier about this. But since I started at the Lux I’ve been a target. At some juncture, you stop being the victim. You stop cowering in a corner or praying you’ll never face a hissing rattlesnake or pissed-off scorpions. You accept that being terrorized just feels weak and wrong.”
I stood and glanced down at Amsel, so sweet and peaceful. So beautiful. “Nothing can happen to my son,” I told Kyle, “just because I was too frail or too scared to protect him. My husband has heavy weights on his shoulders—they’re really not his to bear. But he takes on whatever he has to in the name of justice. And, yes, vengeance. I won’t lie about that or dismiss it. Yet the bottom line is that when you’re wrapped up in the stuff we are—even inadvertently—you have a choice. Hide under a rock and try to pray away the danger. Or take a stand.”
“You’re going all Tombstone on me now.” He laughed softly. “I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. I hear you, Ari. On the one hand, I want to give you a hell, yeah! shout-out. On the other hand, I want to cover your mouth and drag you off where no one can hear your rant. By no one, I mean Amano.”
I nodded. “I know. And I’m sorry. You do so much to keep me safe. But just thinking of all that Wayne could have gotten away with makes my blood boil. Honestly, when I saw him at the casino, as much as I was scared, all I could think was that he had to pay. If I could help make that happen, it was worth any price.”
Amsel sighed contentedly in his sleep. I groaned.
Kyle said, “Not any price, Ari. You have to stop thinking you have nothing to lose.”
“You’re right.” I contemplated this further, then asked, “What about you? It’s not like you’re an orphan. Maverick. Lone dove. You have a lot at stake, too.”
“Such as?” He pinned me with a blank stare.
“An entire future. You’re twenty-three now.” We’d recently celebrated his birthday—and my twenty-seventh. Unfortunately, without Dane, but that was the reality under which we lived. “You can’t tell me you don’t have thoughts of a family in your head—a pretty wife and gorgeous children? You sure as hell have the genes for them.”
He waved me off with a hand.
“What?” I said. “You’ve already proven to be very good with babies.”