Dear god, how I wanted. I wasn’t doing anything right then but sitting across from him, and yet I could feel him as tangibly as if he was touching me. The rough calluses on his hands. The smooth, taut muscles of his thighs. Those lips that I wanted pressed against me, exploring me.
How had I come to this? I felt as if my whole life I’d been walking around made of some sort of combustible material, and I’d only just realized it. I’d been safe, so long as I stayed away from a spark.
But then I’d edged too close to Cole and he’d ignited me. I was going to burn—that much was inevitable. But dammit, I wanted to pull him into the fire with me.
He sat watching me, silent, waiting for me to go on. But I didn’t know what else to say. “So that’s it,” I finally said. “Will you help?”
“What makes you think I can?”
“I know about the Da Vinci,” I said, referring to a forgery of a famous Da Vinci notebook that I knew he’d created years ago.
His brow lifted almost imperceptibly. “What Da Vinci?”
I cocked my head. “The one that’s in Angie and Evan’s condo. Do I really need to elaborate? Or maybe I should recite the litany of your various criminal activities over the years? I’ve been right here, remember? I’ve seen a lot. And I understand what I see.”
There was a moment of silence, and then he leaned back in his seat, so cool and so casual that it was easy to see how he’d become so powerful. Nothing rattled the man. Or, at least, nothing rattled him until he exploded. And then the entire world shook.
“If I’m understanding you right, you’re looking to retain the services of someone who could forge a holographic will.”
“I am,” I said after a brief moment’s hesitation. “Honestly, I don’t know what else to do.” The truth was, I understood what giving that forged will to Muratti would do—it would put the old man at risk. But right then, right there, I had to think about my dad. And hope that somehow, some way, everything would work out.
“Even if I could find someone to retain, why should I?”
“Because I’m here and because I’m asking,” I said. “And because I need your help.” I thought of the girls at Destiny that the knights had been helping for years. I thought of the art students that Cole taught in his nonexistent free time, and the professional artists like Tiki who he mentored.
He wouldn’t deny me—I was certain of that. And, yes, I was playing a game and using his good nature to roll the dice, but I had a feeling that in my position, Cole would do the same.
“All right,” he said. “Done.” He rose, then moved across the room to get another drink.
I watched him go, appreciating the view, but also feeling a bit shell-shocked. “That’s it? No negotiation? No back and forth?”
“Disappointed?”
I shook my head. “How long will it take to make up the forgery?”
He leaned against the bar and took a long sip of his whiskey. “I’m not going to make a forgery.”
“But you said—”
“I said that I’d help. I didn’t say how.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but shut it again almost immediately. I wanted a solution that didn’t require a forgery, after all. And considering the kinds of deals and schemes Cole manipulated and skirted every second of every day, I was confident that he could come up with a plan that both made sense and kept my father—and the property owner—alive.
“All right,” I said. “I trust you.”
The corner of his mouth twitched. “That’s good to know.”
I drew in a breath, then got up off the couch. I moved to him, hoping that he would put his arms around me and draw me close. He didn’t, though, and I was left standing there, a little lost, a little aroused, as the air between us hummed hot and heavy.
“I really do trust you, you know,” I said softly. “Whatever it is that you think we need to talk about, I promise you, we don’t.”