Page 48 of The Beast of Moscow

“Guess you’ll never know the answer then.”

Igor finally cracked another smile. “You’re fast with a reply—I bet that’s why he likes talking to you so much. You don’t give him too much time to think.”

Hadn’t she?

Vera didn’t point her inner question out.

“Do you want me to tell you what I wanted to tell you, or not?” she asked.

Igor shrugged one leather-covered shoulder. “Lady’s choice.”

“He’s still just a stranger to me.”

“You’ve not even done a web search of his name, girl?”

Vera shook her head, unashamed.

“Maybe you are foolish, no?”

She wasn’t offended by his comment.

Much.

“And I know he wants something because he wouldn’t send you otherwise—I bet you have far better things to do. Probably for him. Believe it or not, but I still don’t have a clue about who he is except that he’s important ... and apparently dangerous. And I know that upturned spider tattooed on the back of your hand—and the one I saw on his—means you probably don’t want me to ask a lot of questions. So, when I say that I haven’t asked a lot about him, and I only know what I know, that’s exactly what I mean. Which brings me back around to what he wants—you’re here, so he wants something.”

Igor slipped his hands into the pockets of jeans and rocked back on his heels a bit.

Vera stuffed her card wallet, phone and keys into the thigh pocket of her running sweats. “I’m working on a five-k run a day.”

“How’s that on the ankle—I might have seen something somewhere about that?”

Right.

“Easier than it used to be.”

“Huh,” Igor noted.

“What does he want?”

Igor sighed. “I should’ve just done this over the phone—he could have asked you himself.”

“Better things to do, maybe?” she offered sweetly.

The man only glowered at her.

Vera smiled back.

“Paris—he has an upcoming trip next week, and he wondered ... maybe you would like to join him. It’ll probably only be a couple days, maybe three at the most.”

“For?”

“I’m not offering further details.”

“I do work,” she told him.

“Most people do, yes,” Igor replied easily.

“Most people couldn’t rearrange their schedule in just a few days, either.”