Page 43 of Silent Vendetta (Vendetta Duet)

She stood up and crossed her arms over her chest.

“You know I don’t quite remember,” she said dramatically. “I would have to think on that long and hard.”

“Luna,” I warned, stepping closer. “Do not test me. I don’t have time for this.”

“I have court cases in a few hours. Not to mention, I never made it to my appointment with the mayor. Have you thought about that?”

Crap. I hadn’t gotten that far yet. I needed an assistant. A hostage assistant to help me reschedule her entire calendar in a believable way. But first, I needed to deal with this nuclear bomb.

“Friday. Tell me the most important case you’re working on.”

Luna examined her fingernails. “I’m quite hungry.”

“I’ll get you more food then. Now, give me a case.”

“You know what sounds delicious right now?” She wiggled her fingernails in the air. “Filet mignon. Medium well, covered in blue cheese with a side of asparagus. Could Maria bring that up to me?”

“This isn’t funny, Luna. Tell me now or—”

“Or what?” She stepped even closer, and her eyes blazed, a fiery tempest of wrath swirling in their depths.

“I can just look at your schedule,” I snapped.

“But that’s just data. Without understanding each case, you won’t have abelievablereason that I would miss it.”

“I’ll guess,” I snapped, my patience breaking.

“Good luck with that. Want to place an over/under wager as to when the cops show up here today when you guess wrong? I’m guessing…” She wiggled her hand in the air. “Tonight. What do you think—before or after?”

“You know I’m trying to help you!”

“By holding me hostage. Yeah, welcome to Reverse Stockholm Syndrome 101. That isn’t going to work with me.”

I took her chin in my hand, holding her gaze as her breath caught.

“Give me a legitimate reason you can’t show up on Friday. Now.”

“Why?”

I gritted my teeth. “Because the judge just emailed you. The court date for your writ of habeas corpus got moved up.”

Her eyes ping-ponged between mine. And all humor fell from her face. “What?”

“It seems the judge’s daughter is going to have her baby sooner than expected, so he’s rearranging his calendar next week.”

“He bumped up the date to Friday?” She jerked her chin from my grip.

I waited.

“As in three days from now?”

In order to be ready for that court date, she would need to spend the next two and a half days preparing both herself and her father for that hearing. Obviously, she couldn’t do that while she was here.

“Why would he move me up? Why not push me back?” She began pacing.

“Best guess, your buddy, the mayor, pulled some strings to make this happen faster.” Thanks to her being his little puppet in his hunt for the Windy City Vigilante. “But it doesn’t matter. Point is, give me a legitimate reason you can’t make it Friday so I can email him to push it back.”

“You can’t do that!”

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