“I said who are you?” she repeated when he didn’t answer.
“You shouldn’t have done this.” He grabbed her arm and pressed a gun to her side. “You should have done what you were told, because now you’ve just made me mad and made this whole situation a whole lot worse.”
“You can’t shoot me here in front of all these people. There are cameras and police officers—”
“Except I don’t have anything to lose.” He leaned closer to her. “Which means I wouldn’t test me if I were you.”
There was anger in his voice, but she also caught the fear. What did he mean, he didn’t have anything to lose?
“Who are you?”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“Then tell me who you’re working with.”
“A very bad person.” He shook his head. “Do you think this is a game? Because it’s not. I’m just a pawn, hired to ensure you do what you were told to do. The person who hired me... I meant what I said earlier. They’ve killed before and trust me, they will kill you—and your sister—if you don’t do what they want.”
Someone shouted “Pistola!”
Gun!
Talia turned around. A woman was screaming in Italian for the police. Taking advantage of the distraction, Talia pulled her arm away from the man and slipped through the crowd. But it was too late for him. The police had surrounded the man.
Crowds filled the platform and the scene was chaos. She never should have left Joe. She needed to find him. Needed to get out of here.
“Talia...” Someone grabbed her from behind—Joe. He whisked her back toward the platform. “What did you think you were doing?”
“I don’t know. I saw him, and then...and then something snapped. I had to confront him.” Her hands were shaking, her chest heaving. “What do we do now? They’re going to be looking for me, and we don’t have time to explain this to the police.”
Another subway was pulling into the station.
“You’re right. Let’s go.”
The doors of the newly arrived car whooshed open, letting the dozens of riders escape, filling the platform even more. Joe kept walking, then pulled her into the subway car. The doors slid shut a fraction of a second later.
Talia glanced out the window from the safety of the Metro train. She couldn’t see much, but it appeared that the police now had the man in their custody. Her legs shook as they found two empty seats in the back of the car.
“Talia...”
She looked up at him, unable to tell if he was furious with her, or simply relieved she was okay.
“That was stupid,” she said. “I’m sorry. I never should have confronted him.”
“Stupid, maybe, but on the other hand incredibly brave. But you could have been hurt.”
“I know.” She pressed the palms of her hands against her thighs to stop them from shaking. “But all I could think about was stopping him. To make this entire nightmare go away. I wanted to find out who he was, or who’s behind this.”
“Tell me what he said.”
“He told me I should have done what I’d been told. That I’d made the entire situation worse.” She drew in a deep breath. “But there was something else.”
“What do you mean?”
“Something in his eyes. I don’t know. He told me he didn’t have anything to lose. He was scared, Joe. And I’m not sure why.”
“He’s being used by the person who killed your husband.”
“I know. And now we’ve got the police involved. They’re going to be looking for me now.”
“I’ll talk to my Italian contact. I already sent in a description of the man. I’ll let him know that the police have him in custody and make sure someone questions him for answers regarding this case.”
“And in the meantime?” she asked.
“I think we still need to head north and see if we can find those paintings. Because this is far from over.”
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