Page 36 of Auctioned to the Mafia Don
“No. It is motive.”
“And motive makes people reckless.”
“It also makes them predictable.”
“Not her.”
I look at him. He knows he has said the wrong thing. Or the right one.
Maya is predictable in the ways that matter least. She will run toward the children. She will choose danger if danger puts her closer to Leon. She will insult a man while calculating how to break his wrist. She will take the worst option on the table if it belongs to her instead of someone else.
But beneath that? There is a violence in her patience I do not yet fully grasp. That is part of why I want her close.
“She is more predictable than you think,” I say.
“And less controllable than you think,” he counters, mouth tightening again. “You like that. The challenge she presents you with.”
“Yes.”
I pour a drink because watching him struggle with my choices is becoming tedious, and because the decanter gives my hand something to do besides open Maya’s file again. Her photograph waits in the top drawer. FBI-issued. Severe. Dark hair pulled back. Eyes colder than they were tonight when she climbed into my lap and made herself a problem with a pulse.
A limited photograph.
It tells nothing of the way she looked when she fed anger through a smile. Nothing of the heat in her throat when I touched her. Nothing of the reckless control it took to sit on me, demand I feed her, and not flinch when she realized I enjoyed the game more than she expected.
She thinks she is using the role against me.
Good. Let her.She isn’t completely wrong. I was merely curious about her a day ago, now, I know what she felt like against my body, and I liked it. I want to explore it.
“The original plan was simple,” Omar says, dragging us back to the safer subject. “Take the twins. Keep them hidden. Let word reach Leon through channels we control. Force him to bargain.”
“Simple plans are easy to bury.”
“They are also harder to ruin.”
“The plan was already weak.”
“It could have worked,” he argues.
“It would have wasted valuable time.”
“You hate wasting time.”
“I do,” I agree.
“Then why bring in a woman who will slow every step because you’ll have to anticipate whether she is helping or sabotaging you?”
“Because she will make Leon easier to read. And that will make this entire thing go faster.”
Omar’s brow lowers. “How?”
“Leon will believe I bought her. He will believe I kept her. He will believe the auction didn't offend me enough to close the door on future business. That gives him pride to lean on.”
“And Maya?”
“Maya knows what Leon tries to hide. A man behaves differently when faced with a woman who knows his sins, even if he does not know she knows them.”
“You’re gambling heavily.”
