Page 45 of The Broker

Her head jerks up. “You’re going to let me drive your car. The one that cost half a million dollars.”

It was closer to a million, but I’m not going to tell her that. “It’s just a car.” I hand her the keys. “The accelerator is very jumpy. Be gentle with my baby.”

“Has anyone ever told you you’re crazy?” Valentina shakes her head, but there’s a smile playing about her lips. “Okay, let’s go.”

It’s a sunny day, and there’s no traffic on the A4. We make the drive to Padua in good time. Valentina is beaming widely by the time we pull up at the warehouse. “That was great,” she says enthusiastically. “Although, for the sake of your nerves, I’m going to let you drive on the way back. You lookedgreenwhen I was getting on the highway.”

“I did not. I have my restoration shop on speed dial.”

She laughs as she opens the door. “There’s going to be an explosion of tutus inside this store. You want to wait in the car?”

As if I’m going to let her go in there alone. “No. I’ll come with you.”

I’m waiting for her to bristle at my overprotectiveness, but she just shrugs. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Nobody is inside. Valentina rings the bell, and we wait. An old lady eventually shuffles to the front. “Some threat,” Valentina whispers under her breath before smiling brightly at her. “Buongiorno, Signora. I’m here to pick up a ballet costume for my daughter. I called this morning?”

She blinks in confusion and consults the notebook in front of her. “Angelica Linari, yes?”

“That’s her.”

“One minute.”

It’s a lot closer to five by the time the woman returns with Angelica’s hot pink tutu. “How old is your daughter?”

“Nine.”

She peers at us. “But you’re so young,” she exclaims. “The two of you married early, and you’re still together?” Valentina opens her mouth to explain that, no, we aren’t married, but she doesn’t get a chance. The woman continues, “That doesn’t happen too much in this day and age, does it? A shame. My husband and I, we’ve been married for sixty-eight years. A good, long time.” She beams at us. “I wish the same for you.”

“Thank you,” I say politely. “Come on,wife.”Calling her wife feels surprisingly satisfying.“We should get back.”

We get in the car, and I start the drive back to Venice. Valentina doesn’t say anything. I’m wondering if she’s thinking about the old woman’s words. Does she want to get married? Roberto would have married her—he was old-fashioned that way—but it would have been a prison sentence, not a relationship, and she would have been his possession, not his partner. Valentina knows that as well as I do. But she seems lost in thought. Would she like to try being in a relationship again with someone who isn’t an abusive asshole?

Someone like me?

She glances at me from the corner of her eye. “So, the sex homework you mentioned,” she says. Her cheeks are flushed, but she plows ahead determinedly. “What would my next assignment be?”

Okay, she wasn’t thinking about a relationship at all. “I haven’t had time to devise a curriculum.” I think frantically. “Do you watch porn?”

“Do you?”

“Umm, is this a trick question? Am I going to get into trouble if I say yes?”

She rolls her eyes. “No, of course not. Just answer the question, Dante.”

“Yes. I watch porn from time to time. Do you?”

“Sometimes,” she admits. “My bedroom door at home doesn’t have a lock, though, and I’m always nervous about Angelica barging in, so I tend to read more than watch.”

“My door locks. And Angelica goes to bed at eight.” I hold her gaze in mine. “That’s your next assignment. Tonight, once Angelica is asleep, come on up. Bring your laptop and a clip that turns you on, and we’ll role-play it.”

I’m bracing for her to turn me down, so it’s almost a shock when she smiles. “It’s a date.”

There are a thousand things to worry about. We were able to steal a significant sum of money from Revenant, and Valentina was able to decrypt every file we took from Bergamo, but it doesn’t have the payroll information we need to track down the hacker. Then there’s Giorgio. My informant should have checked in with me today but didn’t. Either he’s gone underground, or something bad has happened to him.

But right now, none of that can bring me down. Because I’ve waited for Valentina for ten years, and she finally said yes.

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