circumstance are you to—”
“No! I meant, what if he wants to see my apartment?”
He tipped his head back and sighed. “Just try to avoid that. If he does, then I’ll hide in the closet.”
She nodded, then reached over to the security panel and buzzed him in. Liam grabbed her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze, then lifted it to his mouth and placed a kiss on her wrist. “Remember the word?”
“Hungry,” Ellie repeated.
She waited until Liam was safely in the bedroom, then opened the front door, stepping out onto the landing. When she saw Ronald climbing the stairs, she pasted a smile on her face and tried to appear as nonchalant as possible. “Hello, Ronald,” she said.
He gave her a smile, the same smile he’d given her hundreds of times before. But she’d never really noticed how smarmy it was. “Hello, beautiful.”
“Come on in. Sit down.”
He did as he was told, sauntering inside with a cock-sure attitude. “Nice place,” he said.
Ellie gritted her teeth. As if he’d never seen it before! “Thanks. Can I get you something to drink? I have a nice bottle of wine.”
“Sure.”
She escaped to the kitchen, giving herself a moment to breathe and to compose herself. So far so good. “Are you—” Ellie stopped herself. “Interested in something to eat? I have cheese and crackers.” She’d almost said the secret word! “Focus,” she murmured to herself.
“No,” Ronald replied. “Just the wine.”
When she returned to the living room, she found Ronald standing at her bookshelves, carefully examining the knickknacks she had on display. She held out the glass of wine.
“Thanks,” he said. “I was just noticing. You don’t have that music box that I gave you.”
“Funny you should mention that,” Ellie said.
“Why is that?”
Ellie sent him a shrewd look. “Sit down, Ronald. We need to talk.” When he was settled on the sofa, Ellie took a tiny sip of her wine, marshaled all her resolve and jumped in. “About a week ago, I spoke with someone from the bank. Dana. Do you remember her?” She waved her hand. “It doesn’t make any difference if you do or you don’t. The point is, she told me that you’d left your job. And she also told me that someone had embezzled a quarter-million dollars from the bank. Can you believe that?”
Ronald shook his head, an uneasy expression crossing his face. “That’s terrible.”
“It is. What’s even more terrible is that they have two suspects.”
“How could that be terrible?”
“Because one of the suspects is me. And the other is you. Now, I know I didn’t do this, so that leads me to only one conclusion—that you did.”
“Ellie, I can’t believe that you’d believe that I—”
“Save it, Ronald. I found the key in the music box. I know what you’re trying to do. You broke into my apartment a few weeks ago, looking for the music box. You tried to run me down on the street and to kill me with a falling brick, probably thinking that if you put me in the hospital you’d have more time to search my things. And when that didn’t work, you broke in a second time and ransacked my apartment.”
“Really, Ellie, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I have the key,” she said. “It must be pretty important—important enough for you to search me out. So if you want the key, then you and I are going to have to make a deal.”
He stared at her for a long moment, obviously evaluating the situation and gauging her determination. “Let’s say I did embezzle that money. What do you expect to get out of this?”
“I could ask for half, since you’ve already made it look like I was the one who did this. But I’m not a greedy person, Ronald. I’d be happy with fifty thousand. Enough to buy me a new start, maybe in San Francisco or Chicago.”
“Do you have the key here?”
“No. It’s in a safe place. If you agree to the deal, I’ll get it and we’ll meet at the bank and you can give me my share.”
Ronald opened his mouth, as if he were about to refuse, then laughed sharply. “I think I underestimated you, Ellie.”
“Most men do. They don’t realize what they had until it’s gone.” She set her wineglass down, then stood. “So, do we have a deal?”
He rose and took a step closer. “I guess we do. And maybe we should seal the deal with a kiss? For old times’ sake.”
Ellie couldn’t think of anything worse than kissing