having her think I didn’t want to introduce her to my fancy friends than to actually bring harm to her door.
Tommy forced a smile. “Will do. Have a good day, Basil.”
Some of my tension drained away. “You too, girl.”
I focused my attention on Katerina, whose narrowed eyes showed sharp intelligence. Yikes.
The woman pointed to an entrance in the far corner that I hadn’t noticed. “My car is in the garage.”
Here was the moment I’d waited for. Tommy was gone. While Katerina’s presence wasn’t ideal, she was just one person. Freedom beckoned from mere steps away.
“Will we be at home visits for most of the day?” I asked, rushing through the maths in my head. Two days of pay could extract me from my predicament. For another week. One day of pay would only allow me to pay rent.
She cocked her head. “We’ll come back for your lunch break and go out again until later. There will be research to do in your office for the last hour of the day.”
In other words, today would be nothing like yesterday.
Every fibre of my being had resisted return. And yet now I was here…
I had to do it.
Eight hours of misery and I’d be about to afford rent for this week and the next. It was time to toughen up.
“Sounds good to me.” I lied.
I followed the woman into a low-ceilinged dark garage that appeared to occupy the entire ground floor. Row upon row of shining cars greeted my eyes—ruby reds, titanium, and black hues. I wasn’t a car enthusiast, but I could spot a rich car from a mile away. Everyone in this skyscraper was loaded.
Katerina led me to a royal blue car that I nearly had to crawl onto the passenger seat of. With a graceful twist, she eased onto the driver seat.
“Nice wheels.” I pulled my pack free and shoved it by my feet.
She patted the steering wheel. “I purchased this with the last commission I earned for securing a house.”
I brushed aside the urge to ask what securing meant. I wasn’t sticking around. I didn’t care. It was slang for their illegal dealings. “Nice.”
Without warning, Katerina zipped the car out of the park. The back tyres slid on the polished concrete, the rubber squealing.
My hands splayed against the window and dashboard in reflex. “Holy sh—”
“I like to drive fast,” she said apologetically.
No kidding. I was thrown to the left as she left the garage and entered traffic, slotting between two trucks. Reaching for my seat belt, I clicked it in place. “I can see that. While I’m in the car, would you mind driving slower?”
“You don’t like the way I drive?” Her voice dropped.
My heartbeat rocketed. “It’s not that,” I blurted. “I get car sick. I wouldn’t want to barf all over your Italian leather.”
Her cute upturned nose scrunched. “I see. I’ll go slow.”
She made it sound like I’d asked for a kidney. “Thank you.”
Slow turned out to be just over the speed limit—preferable to her audition for The Fast and the Furious.
She gave me a rundown as we left Grey. “We’re heading to a house in Green this morning. It’s owned by an elderly man.”
“He’s looking to sell?”
Katerina frowned, and the action drew my attention to her lips. Did she get injections because they were impossibly full and soft? Normally injections made lips look puffy and painful, but she was pulling it off.
“That’s what we’re hoping,” she answered.
I processed that. “He’s unsure?”
“They always are.”
Was this sage advice for the new trainee? It felt like she was saying something more with her words.
She followed the signs to Green and we screeched through street after street of emerald roofs. I’d visited this suburb a few times. They had cute winding streets with Instagrammable brunch spots. Grandmother and I had visited a few of them.
“You’re shadowing me,” Katerina said. “I’ll introduce you, and if the client talks to you, just answer politely. Otherwise, leave the business talk to me. Watch and listen. Tonight, I want you to take notes of everything you recall. There’s a kind of script we loosely adhere to.”
“I can do that.” It was a shame we didn’t start with this yesterday. Today was already miles better than Wednesday.
She slowed down when we reached a quiet corner in Green. The street sign read Gentry Street. Turning, she soon eased the car into a sweeping driveway with neat hedges.
“We have to drive slower on the street of sale in case a client is watching,” Katerina explained, baring her teeth.
I