“Well, I don’t—“
And then the line went dead. She looked at the phone like it was a poisonous snake, feeling as though she might have just received a venomous bite due to her impulsivity in answering Red’s phone. What was she thinking? He was going to be furious.
Stunned, she knocked on the bathroom door again, and he still didn’t answer. So she opened the door, hit full blast by the steam from Red’s sauna. The bathroom was enormous, and she rounded the corner to the stall in the back. “Red, I need to tell you something,” she called out.
“Nicole?” he called back, his voice echoing. He emerged from the sauna with a towel wrapped around his waist and his body glimmering, covered by a thin sheen of sweat. Beads of water dripped down his black locks of hair that fell across his forehead. “Is everything all right?” he said.
“I don’t know.” She handed him his cell. “I might have just done something stupid.”
He checked the caller ID and saw the most recent blocked number. “Tell me what happened,” he said.
“Your phone started ringing and I had this feeling it was important, so I answered it.”
Red looked up at her, surprised. “You answered my phone?”
“I’m sorry.”
He smiled, then, and moved to kiss her lips. His kiss tasted salty sweet. “My darling, of course you can answer my phone. I’ve got nothing to hide.”
She sighed in relief. “I wasn’t sure if…if you’d think…”
He waved her concerns away. “Now tell me the rest.”
“It was Kane Wright,” she said.
His eyes went flat and cold. His lips tightened into a straight line, and his jaw clenched in that familiar way. “What did he want?” Red asked, through his teeth.
“He somehow knew it was me on the line without my telling him.”
Red walked to the sink and grabbed another small towel, patted down his face. “Of course he knew. He reads everything, he keeps meticulous tabs on all of his competition—especially me.”
“He was trying to flirt with me, I think.”
Red looked at her in the mirror, his eyes blazing now. “He flirted with you?”
“A little, in a gentlemanly, polite way. It seemed harmless enough, but I thought I should tell you just the same.”
“Don’t fall for his old world European charm, Nicole. The man is a vermin.”
“He didn’t impress me,” she said. “You’re the only one who can charm me.”
Red turned and looked at her. “Are you sure about that, Nicole?”
“Of course.”
“You might be put to the test on it sooner than either of us thought.”
She folded her arms and tilted her chin up, defiant now. “It won’t be a test for me,” she said. “I love you and you alone.”
“Good. Where did he tell us to meet him?” Red asked, throwing the towel to the sink.
“How did you know he wants to meet with us?”
Red laughed. “I’ve been studying him for as long as he’s been studying me.”
Nicole told him the restaurant and the time. Red nodded. “We’d better get ready, then.”
***
The restaurant was located in a huge old building that Red told her had once been a Prussian factory. They exited the cab and the doorman held the door for them to enter. Nicole nervously looked down at her black cocktail dress and wondered if she should have worn something less “sexy.”
But Red had seemed happy with what she’d chosen for an outfit. He was dapper in one of his classic black suits with a crimson tie. He smelled of aftershave and mint.
Once inside, Nicole was shocked by how dark the lighting was. Each table had an immaculate white tablecloth and was illuminated by a spotlight from the high ceiling above, but the diners were all shrouded in gloom.
Tinkling piano sounds drifted through the room like smoke.
Red nodded towards the far end of the restaurant. “That’s him,” he said, starting to walk that way as the hostess enquired something in German. Red said something back to her in her native language, and she accompanied them to a table in the back of the room.
When they were close enough for Nicole to see what this mystery man actually looked like, she was shocked to find that he was a very handsome person, not at all whom she’d imagined from the sound of that voice on the phone.
He was older than Red, perhaps late forties or even early fifties. But it was obvious that he took very good care of himself. His broad shoulders and muscular build confirmed that much. What Nicole found most daunting were his eyes, however. He had light colored eyes, but when he glanced at Nicole his eyes darkened. And like Red, she saw a very similar intensity and hunger in Kane’s gaze when it locked on hers.