Free Undercover Nightingale by Wendy Rosnau Page B

that is like waving a flag. You could be picked off from across the street.”
    “Afraid for me, or yourself?”
    “I’d like to avoid being shot today if I can.”
    “You’re a tough guy. Prison memories and a big bad scar. What’s one more to add to your bragging rights?”
    He set her bag down next to the couch. “Have any scars you’d like to show me and brag about?”
    She had a couple, but they weren’t worth bragging about. Actually she couldn’t remember where she’d gotten them.
    “Why was Filip at Salavich’s bastion today?”
    That was a very good question, she thought. Allegra cautioned herself not to say too much. She was supposed to be Filip’s woman, nothing more, and until she contacted Cyrus she would continue the ruse.
    “He doesn’t discuss his business with me.”
    “And you’re all right with that?”
    “Why wouldn’t I be?”
    “I don’t think you’re the kind of woman who goes into anything blind. You handled yourself pretty good downstairs.”
    “Just pretty good?”
    “The disguise was quick thinking.”
    “Since we’re on that subject, I think it would be best if Filip was spared the details.”
    “You want me to lie to him?”
    “I don’t see any reason to upset him with details that aren’t important.”
    He eyed the robe, then the belt tied around her waist. “Sharing secrets with you would be my pleasure, señorita .”
    The look he was giving her told her that his silence was going to cost her. She didn’t like his wolf’s grin any more than she liked her position right now. If Filip thought he couldn’t trust her, then what?
    She’d been going over in her mind the time she’d spent with him the past few days and the one thing that stuck out was Filip standing on his yacht with a detonator in his hand, the Sera Vedette on fire and the captain fish bait.
    She finished her wine and set the glass on the bar. Turning slowly, she asked, “What would it take for you to forget what happened downstairs?”
    “I rarely forget anything. I have a healthy memory.”
    “Your price, Toriago?”
    “As I recall, your cash flow is tight at the moment.”
    “Then why don’t you tell me what you have in mind.”
    “There is one thing.” He grinned.
    It was a self-serving naughty grin, akin to a dog’s after he’d cornered a fox.
    “You’re saying if I sleep with you, it will cancel my debts, and make you forget what happened in the bar?”
    “Is that what you’re offering?”
    Allegra walked to the couch and sat. Curling her legs beneath her, she studied Toriago, wondering who he had met in the alley. Wondered if she slept with him if she would be digging herself a deeper hole, or if his healthy memory would suddenly turn fuzzy.
    “I think the ball is in your court, señorita .”
    “I’m thinking.”
    “About whether you can trust me or not?”
    “I don’t do trust. I do cause and effect. We make a deal, and if you break it, then—”
    “Then you kill me with your gun when my back is turned.”
    Allegra smiled. “You’ve played this game before. Good.”
    He took off his jacket, tossed it on a chair. Her eyes locked on it, pictured the phone in his pocket. She decided before the night was over that she would call Cyrus.
    Before he sat down across from her, he pulled his shirt from his pants and unbuttoned it. He lit a cigarette, leaned forward and tossed the lighter on the coffee table between them, and reached for the ashtray. “Could you do it?”
    “Do what?”
    “Kill me? I’m still going over in my mind the whole trust, cause and effect thing.”
    She tried to keep her eyes from drifting to his open shirt. “Some business is more unpleasant than others. But survival is survival.”
    “Whether it requires that you shoot a man or sleep with him?”
    “Filip wouldn’t like what happened downstairs. I see no reason to upset him after the bad day he’s already had. I’ll tell Filip about the tail I picked up. I think he should know that the