"You could have left me in the car," Kat said through clenched teeth. "I didn"t need to come up here."
"And leave you out there alone? Between you ditching me and guns going off, I don"t think so."
The look she shot him said she"d rather take her chance with a loaded gun over him any day.
Okay, definitely ticked. And why the h.e.l.l did that bug him so bad?
The elevator opened, and they both stepped out into the vestibule. Since Maria"s penthouse occupied the entire floor, there was only one double door directly ahead. Kat tensed. Pete moved forward and knocked.
A young woman Pete didn"t recognize but who had to be Maria"s new housekeeper opened the door.
He waited for Kat to step in first, then followed. Maria appeared on the curved staircase that led to the second floor. Dark hair flowed down around her shoulders. She wore loose-fitting black silk pants and a long-sleeved charcoal tunic, looking just as perfect as she always did, even in lounging attire.
"You"re later than I expected, Peter," she said as she descended the last few steps. Her black mules clicked on the marble floor when she reached the first level, and her eyes ran over him from head to toe. "And you look like h.e.l.l."
From the corner of his eye, Pete watched Kat"s shoulders stiffen, but to her credit, she didn"t cross her arms or scowl or show any other outward sign she was upset. Pete had to hand it to her. If the roles were reversed and she"d brought him to see Slade, he"d have already decked the guy.
"Weather"s pretty nasty outside. Took us longer than we expected."
"Hm." Maria shifted her gaze to Kat and extended her hand. "I"m Maria Gotsi."
Kat hesitated, then took Maria"s offered hand. "Katherine Meyer."
"She"s an old friend," Pete interjected.
"Hm," Maria said again as her eyes narrowed on Kat.
Tension swirled in the room between the two women. The scene in the limo the night of the auction flashed in Pete"s brain. At that moment, a fifty-foot drop into a boiling ocean looked more appealing than being trapped between these two.
He opened his mouth to ease the tension, but Maria cut him off.
"I recognize you from the auction," she said, dropping Kat"s hand. "Black washes out your coloring." She transferred her attention back to Pete. "Now, what exactly did you want from me, Peter, that couldn"t wait until tomorrow?"
Same old Maria. Blunt and to the point, especially when a situation wasn"t in her control. The barb didn"t go unnoticed by Kat. From the corner of his eye, Pete watched a muscle in Kat"s jaw twitch, but she still didn"t utter a sound, and she didn"t once take her eyes off Maria.
"We came to get the necklace I gave you a few weeks ago," Pete said. "The gold crouching pharaoh."
Maria looked between them. "Why, exactly, do you need it back?"
Pete glanced toward Kat and lifted his brow. This was her deal, really. He figured whatever she wanted to share with Maria was up to her.
Kat lifted her chin. "Because he didn"t have the right to give it to you. It"s mine."
Silence.
"I see," Maria finally said, brushing a finger down her neck. "However, we"re in America. And possession is nine-tenths of the law in this country. So why don"t you both stop dancing around the facts and tell me just what"s so important about this this necklace that has you both running here when it"s very obvious my home is the last place either of you wants to be?" necklace that has you both running here when it"s very obvious my home is the last place either of you wants to be?"
Kat looked his way, and he saw the indecision in her chocolate eyes. He nodded, silently telling her unless they cooperated, they probably weren"t getting diddly squat from Maria.
Kat shifted back toward Maria, and in her eyes Pete saw strength and certainty and a woman who would do just about anything to get what she wanted. Something familiar turned over in his chest. She wasn"t the timid girl he"d fallen in love with all those years before. She was a thousand times s.e.xier and a million times more intriguing. And so d.a.m.n focused he wanted to kiss her senseless and drag her off to bed like a caveman and let her tame him in any way she wanted. Which was nuts considering everything she"d put him through in the last two days.
"I sent it to him," Kat said. "There"s something inside that could be crucial to an international investigation." She shrugged in indifference. "Of course, it"s your choice whether to keep it or give it to us. But if you keep it, the Feds could charge you with impeding an investigation. Or even collusion."
Doubt colored Maria"s features. She swung her gaze back his way. "An international investigation," she said blankly. "Involving one or both of you. Recently?"
Pete shook his head. "Long time ago."
Maria"s eyes narrowed. "Why do I get the feeling there"s more to this than that?"
Because there was. And because she was a smart woman. Pete didn"t answer.
Neither did Kat.
Maria"s mules clicked as she crossed to the sideboard and poured herself a gla.s.s of wine. She took a long swallow and looked toward Pete again. "I"m afraid it"s not here."
"Where is it?" Kat asked quickly.
Maria shrugged as if she could care less about Kat"s question, in the same way Kat had shrugged moments before. "In storage."
"Here in New York City?"
"Possibly. I"ve had several shipments sent back to Athens in the last few days. It"s possible possible it was in one of those." it was in one of those."
Kat sent Pete a worried look.
"Or," Maria went on, "It"s possible possible it"s still in the vault." it"s still in the vault."
"Then let"s go check," Pete said. "We can"t wait until your shipments arrive in Greece and your employees unpack the crates."
Maria laughed. "Peter, it"s nearly eleven o"clock. The building is closed, the vault is locked and even I can"t get access to the security codes until the morning. I"m afraid you"re stuck until tomorrow."
Kat turned away in a clear sign of frustration and glanced around the apartment. And Pete felt the first stirrings of unease.
He"d hoped to get the necklace and get Kat the h.e.l.l out of New York before dawn. He didn"t like being here, where they could be seen driving around the city or walking into a hotel. Odds were they hadn"t been followed, but he couldn"t be sure, and he sure as h.e.l.l wasn"t risking his life-or Kat"s-on a handful of maybes. He"d seen firsthand what these guys were capable of.
The more he thought about the fact they"d been set up, that Busir had used him to get to Kat in the first place, the more determined he was to make sure she got out of this alive.
Options ran through his head. And though he knew the one that popped up strongest was the worst of the bunch, it was also the safest.
"Fine," Pete said. "We"ll go with you to get it in the morning. But in the meantime, I need one more favor."
Maria lifted her brows in question but didn"t respond.
"We need a place to stay tonight."
Kat whipped back toward him in a blur.
"What?" both women asked at the same time.
"Just for tonight," he said, ignoring Kat"s reaction. "As soon as we have the necklace, we"ll be out of your hair."
"No way," Kat exclaimed. "I"m not spending one single-"
A sly smile spread across Maria"s face as she, too, ignored Kat"s reaction. "That could be interesting."
She lifted a bell on the sideboard and shook it. The housekeeper scurried in from the kitchen. "Mabel," Maria said. "Show Ms. Meyer to the guest room. She"-her gaze ran up and down Kat"s damp, dirty clothing-"looks like she could use a towel."
The air chilled at Pete"s side, and he could feel Kat"s eyes boring into him like icy daggers, but he didn"t turn to look. This was the safest place for her right now, whether she liked it or not.
Maria glanced back to Pete with a victorious smile that made his blood run cold. He knew Kat saw it, just as he knew he wouldn"t do a d.a.m.n thing about it.
"I, on the other hand," Maria said, "would like some time alone with you, Peter. We have some unfinished business, don"t you agree?"
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE.
Maria watched Katherine Meyer stalk up the stairs. The dark-haired woman didn"t bother to look back, which was just fine with Maria. She was happy to finally have her out of the room.
Maria turned toward the sideboard again when they were alone. "Drink, Peter?"
He cut his gaze from the stairs with a scowl. "You can be a real b.i.t.c.h when you want, you know that?"
Maria laughed, poured a finger of bourbon and handed it to him. "And you are never a man a woman can predict." She watched as he set his untouched gla.s.s on the coffee table and sank into a side chair. Alone, he looked tired. Run-down. Beat. Maria couldn"t help wondering just what had happened over the last two days to steal the s.p.u.n.k and style from Peter Kauffman.
She perched on the arm of the sofa across from him and pursed her lips. When it was obvious he wasn"t going to volunteer any information, she said, "She was the one at the auction you went after, wasn"t she?"
He hesitated, then nodded.
"Former lover?"
He hesitated again, then nodded.
"Why do I get the impression there"s more to it than that?"
"Why do you keep asking that same question?" he said with a scowl.
She couldn"t help it. She smiled. "Why are you not being honest with me? Have I not stuck my neck out for you several times in the past? Are we not friends? Suddenly this woman breezes back into your life, and you trust no one but her?"
Peter let out a weary sigh and dropped his head back against the cushions. "She"s not just any woman," he finally said. "She"s the one who changed my life."
"I see," Maria said quietly, though she didn"t, not really. Peter"s past was as blank to her as hers was to him, and for a moment, she considered letting the whole thing drop. True, he was her friend, but there was a reason she"d kept their relationship strictly s.e.xual. She didn"t want to deal with anyone else"s baggage.
She thought of the way he"d looked at Katherine Meyer, with tenderness in his eyes and a longing she"d not seen on another man"s face in...years. And she suddenly wondered if she"d been fooling herself. Maybe he"d been the one keeping their relationship strictly s.e.xual. Maybe she wasn"t as in control of things as she thought she was.
"I"m a good listener, Peter," she said in a softer voice.
He lifted his head and studied her with speculative eyes. Then rose and walked to the window where he looked out at the rain dousing the city in waves. "There"s not much to tell," he said as he pulled the curtain to the side.
"Oh, I think there is. It"s obvious she wriggled herself under your skin. In fact, I think, somehow, she broke your heart."
When he scoffed, Maria knew she was right.
And it wasn"t jealousy that coursed through her as she looked at his somber face reflected back into the room by the window pane, but curiosity. No matter what he said, this woman meant more to him than just about anything else. It was written all over his face, in the deep lines around his mouth and in his haunted eyes. Though she"d vowed never to let herself get close to another like that again, she wasn"t so completely coldhearted that she couldn"t empathize with someone going through the same thing.
"Why don"t you tell me about this pendant and what she was doing at the auction?"
He dropped the curtain and turned to look her way. "It holds evidence pertaining to a crime she witnessed in Cairo when she was working there. We met there. She"s been in hiding ever since for fear of retaliation by the real criminals."
"You knew about this?"
He shook his head. "I thought she was dead."
"Oh."
And that was how the woman had broken his heart, Maria realized. Her gaze dropped to his untouched gla.s.s on the table in front of her as links to the story fell into place. "She faked her death."
"Yeah. She was afraid they"d come after her family if she just disappeared. She had to make it look like she"d died."
"Where is her family now?"
"She doesn"t have any left. Her mother pa.s.sed about two years ago. Heart attack."
"Why did you not know about any of this?"
"She didn"t trust me with it. There were other things between us then."
"I see," Maria said again. But her brow wrinkled as she thought through what he"d said. "Why did she come back for it now?"
"Because I was selling it, and she was afraid it might fall into the wrong hands."
"But you didn"t sell it."
"Nope," he said, moving to study a painting on the far wall. "I didn"t. She picked up the wrong necklace at the auction."
"It seems to me a woman who can break into a Worthington auction and steal a prominent piece of art from underneath security"s nose isn"t helpless. You"ve had that pendant for years, and your security isn"t nearly as rigid as Worthington"s. She could have broken into your gallery at any time to get it. Why now?"
He shrugged as he straightened the painting on the wall. "I don"t know. Maybe she was tired of hiding. Maybe she wanted her life back."
Maria frowned. "I don"t buy that. If this evidence could have cleared her of any wrongdoing on her part, she could have come out of hiding at any time. There"s something else going on here, Peter. She"s protecting someone."
His hand paused on the frame of the painting, and slowly he turned to face her. Questions, and something that looked oddly like realization, raced across his cla.s.sic features.
"What?" Maria asked, puzzled by his reaction.