Page 43 of Never Enough

She pointed her finger at him. “That! Right there! That’s why I need to leave!”

“I’m sorry… I know I’m not stupid, but I’m not connecting the dots here. What ‘that’ are you referring to?”

She twirled her pointed finger at him. “The stupid cute names for me. And the stupid logic. And your stupid charm and stupid niceness and stupid… everything!”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “I’m really not tracking.”

Lying on her stomach in the shaft, she refused to look up. Instead, she just stayed there with her forehead on the cool metal surface and prayed to be swallowed into the first circle of hell.

“Thieves belong in the eighth circle, pretty baby.”

She turned her head to look at him, sitting there all nonchalant as if he didn’t have a care in the world and nowhere else better to be. “How the hell did you know what I was thinking or even know that information?”

He snorted. “You said it under your breath. These shafts amplify everything. As for the other question, I’m a thief, not illiterate, no matter what my teachers said.” He kept his glance at the wall. “My feelings are a little bit hurt. I went to all that trouble to save one of your nine lives, and you took offagain. That’s three times, now, that you’ve done a flit on me.”

She rolled over onto her back, unable to suppress a groan at the aches and pains she had now added to the ones she’d already been dealing with.

“Sore?” he asked.

“You could say that. It’s been a rough six weeks.”

“They called us to help look for you.”

“Mmm.”

“Your friends have been worried about you.”

“Mmm.”

“I’ve been worried sick about you.”

She refused to respond to that comment. Couldn’t respond to it, or she’d give in entirely to the stupidness that was titled “Nemo and Haskell.”

“Where have you been the last six weeks?”

“More like, where haven’t I been? Stumbled into an illegal diamond mine, and the fucking Kader family, joy oh joy. That meant almost forty-two days of schlepping my ass by foot, camel, back of a goat truck, leaking boat, and whatever else I could find out of Zimbabwe, into Tanzania, and finally into Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.” She slipped a hand between her lower back and the floor, absently rubbing at the soreness there. “Little piece of advice. Avoid the camels if you’re ever given the opportunity. Blow up the goat trucks because goat piss doesnotcome out of leather. And definitely fly first class on Qatar Airlines whenever possible.”

“Why did you come to Los Angeles?”

“It wasn’t my first choice. More like a Hail Mary pass at survival. When I got in touch with my employers, by the time they could have gotten to me to help, I basically would have been to Nairobi anyway. One of them managed to direct me to a drop box that had some money and supplies. I had to get out of Africa, so I used my ‘get out of jail free’ card and called Cherry as my last resort.”

“How do you know Cherry?”

“It’s a long story.”

“I’ve got nothing but time.”

Haskell debated what to tell him. “Short version is that shortly after you and I met in Valencia, she found me and offered me a job. I said no. Next day she found me again and gave me her card. Said if I ever changed my mind, call her.”

“You didn’t exactly call her about a job. How did you know she could help you?”

“I’m guessing the conditions for even knowing what the jobwas were the same for you as they were for me. Open the folder, you were committed. Change your mind after that, you disappear. Correct?”

Nemo nodded. “Essentially.”

“People who make those kinds of offers are people who have connections. Options. I was betting on the fact that she could help me.”

Another noncommittal grunt. Suddenly, he asked, “Why did you take off?”

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