Page 30 of A Shade of Myself
I slammed my glass down and glared at her.
She raised her hands. “Emmett was in the room with me during certain phone calls and he picked up things.” She paused, her lips thinning, then sighed. “I’m not used to willingly sharing information, but you’re right and I’m sorry.”
I brushed crumbs off the napkin in my lap, trying not to preen because receiving an apology from this prickly, guarded woman was as great a victory as having breached a fortress. “Thank you. So, machers?”
“Years ago,” she said, “there were only a handful of us in the world.”
“Tatiana was the best,” Emmett said.
“Suck-up,” I said under my breath.
Giselle finished her call and stepped into the main room. Straightening her shoulders, she headed for the bar.
“Kindeleh.” Tatiana raised an eyebrow at Emmett and me in mild admonishment. “When Samuel and I moved back to Vancouver, I went into semiretirement. All of us machers were getting older, so we divvied up territories and picked replacements to take over. The major cities in the world each got their own. Paris, Shanghai, Mumbai, Rio, Mexico City, New York, etc.”
Emmett’s attention had drifted and he people-watched with a bored expression on his face.
“People from smaller centers go to the larger ones for assistance and had I not lived here, Vancouver wouldn’t have had its own, but I wanted to keep my hand in the game.” Tatiana fiddled with the large green beads on her necklace. “If you’re on a job for me, then no one will bother you. I’d give Kadeem a heads-up, just out of courtesy, if you actually did end up in New York.”
“So, the part about having to clear this job with him before you take it was a lie?” I reached for another roll and then decided better of it.
Tatiana picked a candied pecan out of her salad. “Never let anyone know exactly how powerful you are, bubeleh.” She paused. “Or how weak. Be careful getting into bed with the Lonestars.”
I pressed my toes into the ground as if physically testing my next step. “We share an interest in this potential suspect. I’m not drawing an arrow to my jugular with the sign ‘slash here.’”
She smiled indulgently. “May I offer you one more platitude born of my extensive wisdom?”
If you must.
“Please do,” I said politely.
“The girl’s a lightweight.” Emmett nodded at Giselle, who held a mostly full shot glass and was coughing.
Tatiana barely glanced over. “The danger with finding out the truth isn’t about whether or not you can handle it, but that it lays you bare for others. And that can force a show of strength in retaliation.”
“I want vengeance for my parents’ deaths.” I shrugged. “That’s not news to you.”
“I didn’t mean just you. Clients always want to know the truth, but when they get it, they can become problematic.”
Giselle’s case was a puzzle. And in the end, maybe it would be one of those baby ones that consisted only of four large pieces, but my gut said it would take a lot more to make the picture snap into place. “I think solving this for her would be interesting.”
“If that’s all you want,” Tatiana said. “How about a job handling a delicate negotiation? I was approached by a wealthy businessman in Russia interested in our services. It’s time sensitive and I need to get back to him as soon as possible.”
“Is ‘wealthy businessman’ a euphemism for criminal?” I reapplied my lipstick.
“Ours is not to judge,” she said reprovingly. “You’d be dealing with two very temperamental and magic-happy groups. It would be dangerous, which you seem to enjoy, and would require tact, out-of-the-box thinking, and a keen sense of character. That’s got to be far more interesting than Giselle’s problem.”
I felt ten feet tall. The thing about Tatiana’s blunt nature was that any compliment she gave me, while hard-won, was genuine. I seriously considered accepting the Russia assignment, but even if I had to think on my feet while appeasing thugs, it didn’t call to me in the same way.
“I’d like to help the nice woman who flew all this way to speak with us.”
Tatiana shook her head. “I have a bad feeling about this job.”
“You always have a bad feeling.”
“And I’m generally right. You almost landed in Deadman’s Island on that murder case.”
“I also cleared both my name and Laurent’s. I would have been tossed there for sure if I hadn’t. Plus, I didn’t see this hesitation when it came to getting that death curse on you stopped.”
