“Grown-ups are complicated creatures, full of quirks and secrets.”
Roald Dahl
I hated that I was so nervous as I walked into the Cipher Security building the next day. Gabriel was at the front desk, talking to a tall, beautiful woman I realized was Shane, and I almost turned right around and left.
Shane saw me though, and she waved. “Anna, it’s good to see you again.”
“Funny, it’s intimidating as hell to see you, Shane of Cipher Security,” I grinned, not joking even a little bit. “How are you?”
“I’m good,” she laughed. “Have you met Gabriel?”
I nodded. “We met yesterday.” I looked at him. “You were right; the coffee in that conference room is excellent.”
The look Shane gave Gabriel sent a wave of pure jealousy washing over me. Not because I particularly wanted either of them, but because I wanted that look for myself. It didn’t help that I was about to put myself at the mercy of the guy I wanted it from, or that the only looks I was likely to get from him at this point would be cold and disapproving once he heard why I was there.
So I steeled myself and asked, “Is Darius in yet?”
“He is,” Shane said, then turned to Gabriel. “You want to call, and I’ll take her up?”
He was already picking up the phone and dialing when Shane walked me toward the elevator. “Sorry about ratting you out to Darius after the D&D game,” she said casually. “I’m glad Gray fired us though, so it turned out okay.”
I looked at her through narrowed eyes. “It’s not weird for you to be friendly with someone who broke into one of your systems?”
She laughed as we stepped into the elevator. “I met Gabriel because I did a little unauthorized money transfer from one of his clients. Turned out the client was shady as hell, so it all worked out in the end.”
I scoffed. “This client is shady as hell too. Kind of makes you wonder about the people who need private security.”
“Quinn has moved toward corporate security. A lot of these guys are hold-overs from when he and Dan were just starting out.”
The elevator doors closed and Shane turned to me. “Dan told us a little about what happened. I just want you to know that I don’t see things as black and white as some people do, and there is a lot of stuff that happens in the gray areas that I’m fine with. If you and I happen to run into each other at Sparky’s D&D nights, I want you to know that I’m just a nerd who wishes I were as cool as you.”
My scoff was far bigger this time. “You’re the cool one, and I’m the dork with aspirations to Shane-ness.”
She laughed and held out her hand to shake mine. “Excellent. I look forward to our next campaign.”
The elevator doors opened and Darius stood there, looking impossibly handsome in a gray suit with a lavender tie. The man was so elegant I might as well have been wearing cut-offs and flip flops in comparison.
His eyes searched my face for a brief moment, and I wondered what he was looking for. Evidence of tears, of anger, of defiance? “Anna,” he said quietly.
I turned to Shane. “Thanks for bringing me up. I’ll see you at Sparky’s this week?”
“Yes you will,” she said with a smile as she walked away.
Then I turned back to Darius. “I’m sorry for dropping by without calling. Can we talk? It won’t take long.”
Something in his expression shifted from searching to shuttered, and whatever warmth had passed between us a moment before was gone. He led me to a small room with two sofas and a coffee table between them.
“Is this room someone’s office?” I asked, looking around. It felt warm and cozy, like a nice place to nap or play board games with friends.
“There are a few spots around the building that are designed as mixed-use work spaces. I often find a hacker asleep in here when I come in early.” He gestured for me to sit on one sofa, and he sat on the other across from me.
I leaned forward. “I need to put the Manet back into Gray’s panic room.”
If my statement surprised him, he did a good job of controlling his expression. “Why?”
“Because he threatened Colette. He doesn’t know about me, and he doesn’t have proof she was involved in the theft, but the only way he’ll let it go is if the painting goes back.”
This did surprise him. “With what did he threaten your sister?”
“He has the sex tape. He threatened to make it public.”
Darius’s expression went stony, and I wasn’t sure what triggered his disapproval. “And why not send the painting to him or leave it someplace he’ll be certain to find it?”
I shot him a look. “You clearly don’t have enough experience thinking like a criminal. There’s no way to send it that doesn’t include a trail leading right back to us. The minute we add someone else into the mix, we expose ourselves to greed or fear or whatever means he uses to compel people. And leaving it someplace is too risky. There are too many unknown variables, and I don’t want my sister in his crosshairs if he doesn’t get it back.”
“So you believe he knew the Manet was behind you mother’s painting?” Darius asked. I tried not to find too much pleasure in the fact that he admitted the painting I’d taken belonged to my mom.
I inhaled. “We found a message. It was hidden behind the stretcher on the back of the painting my aunt did of me and Colette. Apparently, Markham was the mastermind for the whole Gardner heist, and he planned it for the night the Manet was in the annex for restoration. His plan was to switch my mom’s copy of the Manet with the real one so he could steal it for himself without the head honchos knowing. It was my aunt’s job to finish the edges to match the original and swap the canvases. According to her message, she finished the edges but she didn’t make the switch. Markham thinks she did, and it made her complicit enough that he figured he didn’t have to worry about her turning him in. But now that she’s gone, if he realizes Alex duped him, and then connects Colette to Alex’s family, we’re all at risk.”
Darius huffed in surprise. “Alexandra Kiriakis certainly played a long game, didn’t she?”
“I have no idea. I never got to meet her.”
A hint of sympathy came into his eyes. “I’m sorry. She was your aunt, even though she left your family thirty years ago.”
“She left to protect her family. She made a mistake, and then moved away to keep the mistake from hurting my mom.” I was getting defensive, so I took a breath and sat back.
“And now you find yourself in a similar position,” he said quietly.
I regarded him for a long moment as I tried to control the pounding of my heart. This was why we weren’t possible in his mind – he saw my theft of my mom’s painting as my mistake.
“It wasn’t a mistake to take that painting.” My words hung in the air between us until they crumbled into dust and drifted away. Our eyes held until I finally spoke again. “I need to know how to disable the alarm on the frame so I can remove the old stretcher.”
He looked away then, as though my words hurt him. “I can’t help you, Anna.”
I nodded, exhaled, and stood up. “I think I knew you’d say that, but I had to try.”
He stood and walked me to the door, where I stopped to face him. “You’ll do what you need to do.” I went up on my toes to kiss his cheek. “Goodbye, Darius.”
I didn’t look back to see whether he watched me walk away.