Page 37 of The Game

She reaches around and picks up the antibiotic ointment, smearing some on her fingers.

“Until you reach the highest levels, yes. Then you get to the point that people make so few mistakes that you need to switch strategies.” She gives me a crooked smile. “There I go, being a nerd about tennis again.” She starts rubbing the ointment over my cuts, and I stare down at her hands. It’s such a long time since anyone touched me like this.

“There. That’s not too bad now, I think. Would you like a drink? I feel like I’ve turned your life upside down. Like we started with something that was useful for a bit of publicity, and it’s taken a sharp right turn into crazy town.”

I like Anna—she’s good company. For some reason I don’t want her to think whatever we’re doing here doesn’t work for me. It’s surprising in so many ways.

“A glass of wine would be very welcome,” I say, as I stand up and we head out of the bathroom and down the corridor into a beautiful high-ceilinged kitchen. “And don’t worry about me, I’m used to insanity. If you ever meet Fabian, I think you’ll probably understand.”

She laughs. “That sounds like fun.”

“Areyouokay? That asshole appeared out of nowhere.”

“I’m a bit shaken up, to tell you the truth. I haven’t ever really needed security in the USA, although I’ve employed some people in Russia in the past, but tonight …” She blows out a long breath as she retrieves a bottle from the fridge. “I’ve only had one or two incidents where people got persistent. Most people are really nice. That’s the first time someone has tried to do something more serious.” She shakes her head. “I mean it was Arty, not some fan, so to some extent it’s my fault. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t been there.”

She pulls two glasses from the cupboard and pours the wine.

“God knows, it’s not your fault, Anna. You should have punched him with that amazing right arm of yours.”

Fortunately, she laughs as she passes a glass to me and raises hers to her lips.

“I could teach you jujitsu if you like?” I add.

“Ha! That would be great. I did do some martial arts when I was younger, judo and things like that.” She laughs again. “I was too competitive and got into a bit of trouble about fighting too hard. I thumped a girl in the face … sort of by accident?”

Now I start to laugh. “Sort of by accident?”

She smirks. “Well, she was a real bully, and all through our fight she was smack-talking me and cheating, trying to pull illegal moves. I got an opportunity to put her in a choke hold, and my hand slipped and I ended up punching her in the jaw. Of course, it was a foul, but she went down like a felled tree, howling.”

I’m still laughing. “You’re scaring me now. What would happen if I taught you jujitsu?”

She grins back at me. “But you took him down so fast, Adam! You’re like this self-contained, mild-mannered guy but then, bang! He was on the floor in seconds. You’re much more ruthless than you look.”

“Martial arts are excellent for defense. You learn a lot of restraint techniques.”

She eyes me with raised eyebrows. “Don’t think I didn’t notice that you avoided themore ruthless than you lookcomment.”

The buzzer echoes suddenly in the quiet of the apartment.

“I wonder who that can be?” With a frown, she disappears out of the kitchen to the intercom and I follow her.

“Ms. Talanova, Arty Maroz is in the lobby …” the doorman starts, and Anna’s face goes white, and even from where I’m standing, I can hear shouting coming out of the speaker. She presses her hand to her lips.

I lean into the intercom. “Mr. Maroz attacked Ms. Talanova at an event earlier tonight. Can you keep him busy while I call the cops?” I pull my phone out of my pocket and press 911 as I’m talking.

“I don’t know, Sir, I …”

“Sir?” The shout echoes in the background, and there’s a loud crash.

I hand my phone to Anna. “Talk to the police. I’m going down to the lobby.”

Her eyes go wide. “You can’t do that, Adam! He could be dangerous.” Sheruns a hand through her hair. “God, why is he here? I thought what he did was just some stupid publicity stunt, that he was just trying to get attention.”

“I can’t leave that poor guy on the door to deal with it,” I say, and before she can stop me, I walk down the hallway and mercifully the elevator is still on the penthouse floor. I step inside, push the button for the lobby, and the doors slide closed.

As soon as I walk out into the lobby, Arty launches himself at me, but I’m ready for him, neatly sidestepping and managing to kick his legs out from under him. When he falls over, I jump on him and pin his hands down. But I’d forgotten how fucking strong he is. He kicks his legs, trying to buck me off and my knees slide against the polished marble floor.

“Kozol!” he shouts.

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