Page 27 of Professional Liar
Nine
Pierce
It occurredto me on Tuesday morning, as paperwork crammed in folders strewn across my dining room table, I should tell Kat about my business. We’d never really gotten into details about our respective families.
I didn’t know how I could talk to her about it safely, however. As if summoned, the front door opened, and Kat swept in carrying a handful of paper shopping bags while tugging her sister in behind her.
I closed my computer and wondered if I should ask about the shopping trip or wait until one of them spoke to me.
Kat tossed her bags on the couch, and they both wandered into the kitchen, talking loudly in Italian waving their hands back and forth at each other.Yeah, better stay out of it.
I sat back and waited, enjoying the sultry sound of Kat’s voice working around foreign syllables.
They exited, clutching water bottles, and halted on the other side of the table, as if they only just noticed they weren’t alone.
I smiled. “Hi.”
Kat paused for a beat, then came around to kiss me on the cheek. I wanted to draw her into my lap, give us both a reason for an afternoon nap, but I knew how much she valued time with her sister. I let her pull away.
“We were thinking of going to lunch,” Bianca said. She flicked her eyes to her sister pointedly.
I could sit and try to figure out if they actually wanted me to join them, or… I peered up at my wife. “Do you want me to go, or do you want to be alone with your sister?”
She leaned down and whispered in my ear. “I want you to go, and then we can take the car back alone and make use of the backseat.”
I didn’t even care where they wanted to go. My cell phone vibrated on the table, and I checked the text from Holt, saying he’d brought the car around. Kat must have asked him.
I stood, buttoned my sleeves, and shoved my arms into my jacket. “After you, ladies.”
They took me to a bistro ten minutes away, a place the crew visited often. The tables outside were set, despite the brisk early spring temperature.
Kat settled at a table near the plate glass window, and Bianca and I took the other two chairs. The waitress came out immediately, took drink orders, and returned inside, clasping her navy sweater tight to her body.
I didn’t like sitting out in the open with both of them, but I didn’t want to ruin her day by insisting we go inside out of a sense of unease. She’d likely throw the bread basket at me.
We all ordered soup, and I sat content to listen to them ping pong back and forth. I’d never seen this side of Kat. Our relationship had never been traditional, so I didn’t get romantic dates, or late dinners, or to hear about her day. At least not until it went sideways and she showed up at my door clutching a magnum of French Champaign.
This smiling, normal, vibrant woman I didn’t recognize. Oh, but I wanted to know her. Only decency and the presence of her family kept my hands in my lap.
The soup arrived, and I focused my attention on the crowd while they ate. I took a few sips of the pumpkin bisque after Kat questioned me. Then I continued keeping watch. Something tingled against my neck. I almost called Fox to join me, but decided I was likely being paranoid.
“Why aren’t you eating?” Kat asked me for the second time since we sat down.
I shook my head and met her eyes. “No reason. Not as hungry for lunch as I thought I was.”
She blushed and ducked her chin. The telltale pink washing up her neck told me she knew exactly what I didn’t say.
Bianca pointed a breadstick toward me, drawing my attention away from Kat. “So, Mr. Mysterious, you still haven’t told my sister what it is your family does.”
“Well, it’s not exactly conversation for lunch or public.”
One of her blonde eyebrows raised, rivalling Jack Nicholson. “You do know what we do, right?”
“What our family does,” Kat corrected. Something passed between them. I knew Kat kept Bianca as far away from the dark side of her family as possible.
Officially, I didn’t know anything but the front. Unofficially, I knew more than enough.
Bianca leaned in like she wanted me to whisper my secrets, I didn’t join her. “I’m not saying a word out here.”
