East Bound by Nana Malone (big ebook reader txt) 📕

face. I didn't want her to worry and then get nosy enough to come looking for me.

"Thanks for letting me know. You have a good night now."

"You too, love. Do you want me to pick you up some biscuits from the shops?"

"Oh, you're the best, but no. I'm back at work now, so I must stay focused and eat less biscuits."

"No fun, is it?"

I laughed. "No, not much fun at all."

I forced myself to keep my voice light and airy. Just as she rounded the corner that led to the lobby, I reached into my crossbody bag and palmed my Mace. Keys in my right hand, I was able to unlock the door deftly enough while still gripping the puffer. I stepped in, noting the lights were low, not unlike how I normally left them. "I already know you're in here. Time to come out."

I didn't know who I was going to find. I assumed it would be Denning. If he thought I wouldn't Mace him, he had another think coming. It wouldn’t be my father, or Mrs. Briggs would have recognized him. But even he would have called first.

"Your neighbor is lovely, I must say."

I whipped around toward the hallway, and out of the shadows strolled none other than Francois Theroux.

His face was so familiar. He'd been at my father's office glaring back at me from a case file for years. "What the fuck are you doing in my flat?"

He put up his hands. "Easy does it. How about you put the Mace away before one of us gets hurt?”

"You realize I'm MI5, Interpol, and know how to use a gun. I think I'm capable of not fucking up with Mace."

"I do not doubt your skill level, but maybe you should pay attention to the man I brought along.” The closet door eased open, and I nearly jumped, but I didn't take my eyes off of Theroux. Instead, I reached in my handbag, grasped the hilt of the knife I always carried, and pulled it out.

Theroux chuckled softly. "Well, it seems that you stay handily armed."

"Yeah well, I've had to. What are you doing in my flat?"

He waved off his goon, who leaned back against the closet and crossed his arms.

I just rolled my eyes. "If that's meant to calm me down so I'd put this away, you don't know me very well."

"Well," he said as he approached slowly, "I know you better than you think I do. I must say I was disappointed we couldn't meet last week. I was excited to see you and Mr. Hale in action."

I knew that Bram Van Linsted had sent a hit squad, but he didn't know any of that, so I pushed him a little. "Were those your goons shooting at us?"

"That was unfortunate, and certainly not classy. Shooting in public? I’m a gentleman thief. What do you take me for, some kind of hoodlum? No. I prefer the subtleties in life."

"Ah, yes, you just prefer to try and kill me in my flat. Did you think no one would notice?"

His smile was easy. "I noticed you said, try to kill me."

"You think I'm going to make it easy? No, I won't. So, can we get on with your agenda or not?"

“Congratulations on no longer being suspended. Excellent work. I wish you'd chosen that route first though. It would have saved you time."

He sauntered past me, even though I kept my weapons trained on him, and he didn't even seem to notice or care. "Henry Warlow, where are we on finding him?"

So, he was going to just pretend he hadn’t broken into my flat and wasn’t standing in my living room uninvited? "We're tracking down leads. I don't know how fast you thought this was going to go, but the guy vanished. He's a ghost. So it's taking time, but we’ll find him," I said with determination.

"My, my, you are a little thing, but so much strength, so much zeal. The kind of daughter a father could be proud of."

"Yeah, well, you should probably tell my father he should be proud, because he doesn't seem to know."

"Oh, I guarantee you he knows. He's just too much of a twat to tell you."

I coughed, fighting to hold back my laugh. "Considering you're his number-one enemy, I think you have a very specific opinion of my father."

Theroux shrugged. "Let's just say I've been evading his capture for a long time. Running from someone tells you a lot about them. How they think, how they pursue, and whether or not you want to get caught."

"Why do you want to get caught? Why do you want to let me take you in?"

The look that he gave me was merry assessment. "Because I find you delightful, and I know that it will irk him greatly that he's not the one to get the glory. Let’s just say that I'm guaranteed to stay alive while you process me, and he won’t get the credit. That's pleasure enough for me." He placed a hand over his chest as he walked, and I followed him into my living room, careful to keep my back to a wall and my weapons handy.

"Why are you willing to do this? Why are you even allowing yourself to be brought in? Clearly, you know how to evade arrest. Clearly, you don't need to walk in there, put your hands up, and surrender."

"Oh, but what fun would that be?"

"What is it with you and him? I'm sick of this. I'm sick of the game. Either you have something to tell me or you don't. Either you have something that I need to know pertaining to Henry Warlow or what I'm working on, or you don't. If not, stop wasting my time. I don't want to play games. I want to get you what you want and bring you in. And then—"

He nodded at me, brows lifted, as if encouraging me to keep talking. "And then what?"

I frowned at that. "What do you mean, then