by Cathy Pegau
My grin faltered. “What’s wrong?”
Tonio blocked my view of the kitchen. “Let’s sit here in the living room, Liv. It’s much more comfortable.”
The back of my neck tingled unpleasantly. Something was up. Tonio never let me eat anywhere but on easy-to-clean surfaces. He herded me toward the couch, but I pivoted around him and went to the kitchen.
“Liv, wait.” The dish clattered on the coffee table.
I stopped in the doorway, my throat and gut tightening. My mother rose from a seat at the kitchen table in our supposedly unknown location. How had she found me? How the hell could Tonio have let her in?
A glass of wine and an empty plate with the remnants of Tonio’s culinary skill were near her place. Not only had he let her in, but he’d fed her too. Now I remembered why we’d divorced: He was a jerk.
“Hello, Olivia,” she said softly. Her blue eyes were filled with either regret or the hope I wouldn’t hit her.
“Get out.” My tone was just as quiet, but the coldness in those two words startled me as much as they did her.
She paled a little then recovered, her lips pursed with indignation. “I just want to—”
“Get.” My back teeth ground together. “Out.”
I didn’t want to hear anything she had to say because I was sure it would all be a lie. One big, fat, soul-sucking lie, and I’d had enough of those from her. My job was lying; I didn’t need it in my personal life, as well.
I turned to leave and almost bumped into Tonio’s chest. The expression on his face was a combination of apology and concern. What kind of crap had Sabine told him to worm her way into the flat? It didn’t matter. All I knew was he’d let her in after I’d told him how she’d failed to make any effort at all to see me when she was in Pembroke. Betrayal and disappointment mixed with the anger churning in my gut. I wanted to vomit and cry, but not in front of them.
“Bastard,” I growled as I pushed past him.
“Liv.” His fingers brushed my upper arm, but he didn’t get hold of me.
“Let her go, Tonio,” my mother sighed. Oh, poor neglected mama. To hell with her. “This is how Olivia tends to deal with unpleasant confrontations.”
That stopped the flight toward my bedroom as if I’d hit a plasti-glass wall. I whipped around, hands clenched at my sides.
Sabine stood just outside the kitchen, her arms crossed under her breasts. Frown lines creased her forehead.
“This is how I deal with confrontations? This, coming from a woman who never bothered to contact her only child? You have no right to be upset with me.”
Tonio’s gaze darted between the two of us. He remained out of the direct line of fire but close enough to jump in, should physical restraint be necessary. Which it might come to if I couldn’t control the urge to strangle my mother.
Her eyes narrowed. “You left home as soon as you turned sixteen with barely a goodbye,” she chided. “I got the distinct impression you didn’t want to see me.”
“I left because you told me it was time I took care of myself.” I took a breath and blew it out slowly to relieve some of the tension in my jaws and chest. As much as I wanted to scream at her, to rant and throw things, I couldn’t respond like the abandoned kid inside me wanted to. “You said I was old enough to be on my own, that I was making it hard for you to target new marks. Do you remember those words, Mom? Because I sure as hell do.”
Her features softened, but she said nothing. Guilt will shut up some people, and I was amazed it had affected Sabine Braxton at all.
I squeezed my fists tight and bit the inside of my lower lip to stop the damn tears. “That’s what I thought.”
Over the years I thought I’d built up enough of a scar to not let her dismissal hurt so much. But it was more of a scab than a scar, a less permanent thing that had been torn open when she’d shown up at my door weeks ago. And just as it was healing over, here she was again, picking at it.
“Olivia—” Her voice broke over my name, and her lip quivered.
“No.” I held up my hand, palm out, to stop her. “No. You only found me because you needed money and a place to stay. Not because you wanted to see me, not because your marriage fell apart and you needed me. You have what you came for. Now get out.”
This time I would be the one to leave the wound.
I walked into my bedroom, closed the door as gently as my shaking hands would allow and managed to bury my face in my pillow just before a wail of pained fury burst from my chest.
If the glowing amber numbers on the chrono beside the bed hadn’t proved I’d slept for a few hours, the grittiness in my eyes and dryness of my throat would have. Soft light from neighboring buildings filled the room. I’d forgotten to opaque the window, but it wasn’t the lights that woke me. My head throbbed, and my stomach rumbled.
I stripped off my wrinkled work clothes, donned my shorts, tank and robe, then padded to the door and listened. No voices from the other side. I cracked open the door. Arrhythmic tap-tapping sounded from the corner of the living room. It couldn’t have been Sabine; Tonio wouldn’t have let her on the SI unit he’d set up to monitor the Exeter comm traffic.
I eased the door open further and stepped out. The windows had been opaqued. Only the glow from the screen lit the small work area. Tonio was still dressed in street clothes, his dark hair mussed as if he’d run his hand through it in frustration—Gee, wonder who’d caused that?—and his eyes were fixed on the screen. He didn’t appear to see or hear me come in.
“Anything interesting?” I asked quietly.
Not a twitch from my interruption, almost as if he’d been expecting me. “Not yet.”
I walked over to stand by his shoulder. “Kind of late for comm traffic, isn’t it?”
Without looking away from the screen, he kept keying the board. “Just catching up on earlier transmissions. But there’s nothing about the K-73s.”
Not a surprise. Talbot was too smart to slip up, and I was sure she’d personally crucify the others involved if they did.
Was Tonio going to say anything about my mother? About why he’d let her into our flat? I drummed my fingers on my thighs and waited. Several minutes passed, and my irritation at his ignoring my feelings grew until my fingers hit with increasing frequency and force.
Finally I stopped tapping and blurted, “Damn it, Tonio, how could you let her in?”
His fingers froze over the keyboard. Half his face was in shadow when he looked up at me. “She’s sorry about what’s gone on between you and wants to make things right. I think you should talk to her, Liv.”
My mouth dropped open. Somehow she’d seduced him, like she had so many other men over the years. “Damn, she’s gotten to you too.” I thought Tonio would have been immune to her after I’d inoculated him with stories of my upbringing, and especially in view of her more recent deeds. I stepped back as if he were contagious.
Tonio shook his head. “She hasn’t ‘gotten’ to me. She came looking for you and started to cry when I told her you’d be late and probably didn’t want to see her anyway.” He held his hands up in concession. “What was I supposed to do, leave her in the hall?”
Crying Woman, one of the oldest cons in the book. The goal was to set up the mark for future procedures or to get him—it was usually a him—to give her money to go away. Reasons for the crying varied, but the basic ploy was the same. Crying Child with Lost Pet had been my first solo job. I was four and received a twenty-five-credit chit to get myself a new dog.
I sighed at his gullibility. “Oh, Tonio, you are such a man. She was playing you.”
My anger at him melted a little. Sabine Braxton was a pro at this game, so I couldn’t fault him for being taken in by her. Well, I could, since he’d been told of her ways and, as someone in the business, should have known better. But there was something almost mystical about how my mother worked. Few men had escaped her charms.
He frowned as he stood. “I think she was sincere.”
&nbs
p; I rolled my eyes and headed toward the kitchen as my stomach growled. “Of course you do. Her life’s work is to make people believe her crap.”
Even I’d fallen for her stunts, but hopefully I was building up resistance to her.
“You’re not even going to let her apologize?” he asked as he followed me.
I called up the lights and started rummaging through the cooling unit. “Nope.”
“I think you should.”
A bowl of what looked like pistachio pudding called my name. I found a spoon in a drawer and thumped the unit’s door shut with my foot. “No.”
“Liv—”
I set the bowl down with a bit more force than necessary and sat at the table. “I’m not going to discuss this anymore.”
“Aren’t you curious about how she found us?” he asked, taking the seat across from me.
Our eyes met over the spoonful of pudding I was about to shove in my mouth. That wasn’t a question I’d expected. Though I’d asked myself that very thing when I’d seen Sabine tonight, anger had outstripped curiosity.
His frustration changed to something else, putting a sly twinkle in his eyes. Despite my petulant inner child throwing a tantrum about not caring how Sabine did anything, I asked, “How?”
The creamy, nutty flavor of the pudding momentarily appeased the inner child as I watched Tonio’s face. He grinned. “She tracked you through the purchases you made in Pembroke. She broke into their supposedly secured accounts files and located the delivery address.”
I swallowed. “Is that supposed to make me feel better? That my mother can find me anytime she wants but chooses not to? Thanks.”
“No, but after I let her in—”
My back stiffened, and I frowned. Somehow his admitting he hadn’t been overpowered or shot with a stunner made it all the worse.
Tonio held up a hand to forestall any renewed railing. “Let me finish. After I let her in and we talked about you and her, I turned the subject over to her latest jobs.”
I narrowed my eyes, wondering why he’d felt the need to get so chummy with her. “So?”
He shook his head and sighed. Apparently something wasn’t getting through my thick head. “So, she’s been working with the latest programs and tech appliances, Liv. Your mother broke into a number of system files to find you, both in Pembroke and here. Files with sophisticated protection to guard the personal account information of very wealthy, very security-conscious clients.”
I took another mouthful of pudding as the words cut through the natural resistance toward anything to do with my mother.
“You need direct access to Talbot’s SI unit,” he continued, “and even then, only the best software and gadgets will get us those files.”
I knew where he was going with this. And the worst part was, he had a valid point.
The pudding was suddenly too sweet. It clung to the back of my throat as I forced down the last mouthful and set the spoon on the table. “You want me to make nice with my mother so I can break into Talbot’s computer.”
Tonio leaned toward me, forearms on the table. The grin was gone, replaced by concern and aggravation in his eyes and in the lines around his mouth. “If you don’t settle this thing between the two of you, it’ll be a distraction and you might make mistakes. We can’t afford mistakes here, Liv. But we can also benefit from her, as well.”
I ran my hands through my hair. Anger, hurt and downright stubbornness produced every excuse possible to say no. Fingers laced behind my head, I stared up at the ceiling and sorted through the mess in my brain. Tonio, bless his conniving heart, waited in silence.
I might not be able to forgive my mother, but I could fake it. I’d let her offer explanations, excuses, and I could tell her we were on our way to what passed for a normal relationship. That would soften her up enough that I’d be able to get her help. Hopefully without giving her much in the way of details.
It made sense. If I could con the con, we’d be that much closer to pulling off the job. That would get Willem off my back.
Shit. Willem. I’d met him at the elevator on my way in.
Heart thudding hard, I laid my hands flat on the table and met Tonio’s gaze. “Does Willem know about her?”
He shook his head. “He stopped by just before you got home, but Sabine was in the kitchen. He didn’t come in.”
A sigh of relief eased some of the tension in my body. The thought of the Greys learning I even had a mother, let alone that I was using her to help with the job, sent a chill through me. I couldn’t see us having a normal relationship, but I didn’t want the Greys to get to her either. Another rule in the felon’s handbook: Never give anyone any ammunition against you. As much as Sabine infuriated me, I didn’t want to see her hurt. Well, not physically harmed anyway.
“We’ll be careful about giving her any details of the operation,” Tonio said, as if reading my thoughts. “Willem won’t have to know about her. And if he finds out, it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission.”
If I learned what I needed from Mom, and it got us the file information faster, then Willem would likely be angry but glad to be moving forward with the job. I hoped. There was always the chance he’d have a bad reaction anyway.
Tonio and I stared at each other as we silently weighed the options and risks. He was taking as much of a chance as I was, should Willem learn we went behind his back. I had to give him credit for that much, even if he wouldn’t admit my mother had conned him just a little.
“You know where she’s staying?” I asked.
He nodded.
“All right,” I said, despite the feeling this was going to come back and bite me in the ass in some way. “Call Sabine.”
The following morning, curled up on the couch with my handheld, I was concentrating on the information contained in the data sticks Talbot had given me when I felt Tonio hovering. I ignored him. He cleared his throat.
“What?”
He dipped his chin toward the door. Without having to look I knew what he was saying. I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, shutting down the handheld. I set the small computer on the coffee table and stood.
Sabine waited just inside the door, hands folded in front of her, like some poor waif hoping the master of the house would toss her the stale heel of bread. Her blue eyes were wide and full of hope. If I hadn’t known who she was and what she was capable of, I’d have given her a good meal and a handful of credit chits.
But I did know her.
“Did Tonio tell you why you’re here?” The tone of my greeting earned me winces from both Tonio and my mother, but I wasn’t ready for more than bare civility yet.
“He did, in a rather roundabout way,” she said, giving my ex a little smile. “Since we weren’t on a secure line, he didn’t elaborate but I got the gist of what you might need.”
Tonio walked to her. “Let me take your coat, Sabine. Have a seat.”
She shrugged out of the expensive-looking red wrap, handed it to him and approached me as if I were a viper. She sat on the far end of the couch, placing her equally chic bag by her feet. “Are you going to sit down, Olivia, or spend the entire time looming and making me feel worse than I already do?”
I remained standing for another few seconds, just to let her know that yes, I did want her to feel worse, then lowered myself onto the couch. I was close enough to see the screen of the tablet computer she pulled out of her bag, but not too close.
“Just like your grandmother,” she muttered. Shaking her head, lips pursed, she fired up the unit. “We’ll start with the basics of software then move on to applications and appliances that might be useful.”
“When did you go from playing men to playing with computers?” I was tempted to say something about her getting too old to catch a decent mark, but to be honest, she was looking good.
“A girl has to keep up with technology.” She reached inside her bag and set a black stick on the table. It looked similar to the ones used ever
y day and in every way, but it had no manufacturing label or markings of any kind. Just a matte black shell with a small yellow button on the end.
“What’s that?” I asked.
Her mouth slanted into a sly smile. “My newest toy. But we’ll get to it later. Tonio tells me you’re up against top-of-the-line security,” she said and went back to tapping keys.
I watched her screen flicker to life. “The whole building is locked down. Attempting access from outside leaves footprints the size of a Bidarki mammoth.”
“We’re able to get into their communications, but only passively and for limited durations,” Tonio said, settling into a chair across from us. “We can listen but can’t infiltrate.”
Sabine nodded as she worked. “So you have to be inside to tap into their network.”
“Worse than that,” I told her, still silently marveling at her knowledge. “The files I need aren’t accessible through the internal network. I can talk to the unit they’re on, but when I look for particular files it’s like they don’t exist.”
“Maybe they don’t.”
My spine stiffened at the insinuation I hadn’t been thorough. Despite my failure to find them, I knew Talbot, Craig and Pritchard had been discussing something less than legitimate that day. “They do exist. And I’ve tried all the bloodhounds I know.”
She looked up from the screen. “Did you try the Kravitz app? The Wiggle Worm? Brigid’s Fist?”
“Of course. Working from my own SI has proved futile so far.” I quirked an eyebrow at her. “Do you have something more powerful up your sleeve?”
I’d let my hacking skills slip since leaving home. I could maneuver around most systems, like I told Willem, but the newer security apps were challenging. Since my goal had always been cash, not information, I didn’t need to be a tech expert. More direct methods of acquisition suited me just fine; the electronic manipulation of credits was tricky and required more patience than I usually possessed. Though this job was taking longer than most, I found myself enjoying the challenge of cracking Talbot and her computer.
