Page 123 of Bitter Secrets

“Is Sarai coming?” she asked.

He looked up with a frown. “No. Why would she?”

She jerked her chin at Mo and Johan, who were sitting at the bar.

“They’re working.”

“Do they ever get time off?”

“They’re compensated not to have personal lives.” He frowned at his phone. “We’ll get more security once we’re back in the States.”

“More? Is that necessary?”

His eyes flicked from his screen to her. “Lyle and your father aren’t the only ones who threatened to end my life.”

Her stomach iced over. She set her glass down hard enough that the wine rocked from side to side. “They wouldn’t.”

He didn’t answer her, but set his phone face down and sipped his brandy.

“Roth, has anyone…?”

“I’ve made many enemies.”

She leaned across the table, voice low. “Shouldn’t Mo and Johan be shadowing you? Why do you have them on me?”

“I can take care of myself.”

She eyed his casual attire. “You have knives strapped to your calves or something?”

“I’m armed most of the time in one way or another.”

She blinked. “What? How? I’ve never even seen you with a gun.”

“You’re not comfortable, so I don’t leave them out in the open.”

“I’m not uncomfortable. I grew up in the country, but…” She waved her hand before she picked up her Port and sipped. “I’m cautious. I’ve never held one before.”

“We can go shooting.”

Her brows shot up. “We can?”

“It can’t hurt for you to know your way around a weapon. You never know when it’ll come in handy.”

That sounded ominous. She wanted to ask if there had been attempts on his life, but when he turned and scanned the restaurant, she was reminded of her earlier assumption that this was a business dinner.

“Are you expecting company?”

He turned back to her. “What kind of company?”

“The only kind you deal with.” She arched her brows. “Business.”

“No. I’ll deal with that in the morning.”

She ran through her mental files of the businessmen with ties to Portugal. If Roth had continued his pattern of conducting business with her father’s contacts, it had to be, “Are you meeting Lourenco Silva?”

He showed no reaction to the query, but slowly rotated his glass of brandy as he studied her.

“Or is it his son, Tiago, that’s taken over?”

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