right: she had a fairly good idea where Tisiphone was hiding.
Although she wasn’t ready to tell him that. It meant having to dig through Doug’s old papers, and so far, she just hadn’t been able to do that yet.
She didn’t for one minute believe Rafe Sullivan would split the find with her fifty-fifty, but maybe, if she played her cards right, she could walk away with all three Furies before they were through. Maybe she could beat him at his own game.
Because she knew the Furies didn’t mean nearly as much to him as they did to her.
They couldn’t.
“If I say no?” she asked, acting as if it didn’t matter to her in the least.
“You’re not going to,” he tossed back with confidence.
She turned and stared out the window as she ran through her options. After she’d found Alecto, she’d put in for a sabbatical from the university so she could go after the others. She was planning on focusing on Magaera next, but if he already had that one as well, Tisiphone was her only hope. She was risking her career on three pieces of stone, taking risks where, if she got caught, she could lose everything she’d worked for over the past fifteen years. But something in her gut said this was her time. If she didn’t try now, she’d spend the rest of her life wondering if this might have been her chance. Finding the reliefs wouldn’t change the past, but they might give her the validation she’d been seeking her whole life.
After everything that had happened to her because of the Furies, she needed them. And dammit, she deserved them.
There was her answer. Like it or not, she was about to go along with this outrageous idea.
She shifted toward him and fought back the excitement racing through her veins. If nothing else, he wouldn’t turn her in. And if things got hot, she could always flip the blame right back on him. After all, he was the thief. “Okay.”
“You’re in?” His dark brows lifted with a touch of surprise. And she knew then the guy wasn’t quite as sure as he’d looked before. Smoke and mirrors, she reminded herself. That’s all he was.
She dropped her arms. “I’m out of my freakin’ mind. But yeah, I’m in.”
The victory that flashed in his eyes made her stomach tighten and her thighs tingle without warning.
He was a liar and a cheat. And if she let him, he’d screw her in more ways than one.
Lord help her, she was in way over her head.
“You didn’t have to tag along.” Lisa tossed her suitcase into the trunk of the rental car. “This isn’t going to be a long trip.”
“Green on grass, white on rice. For the next few weeks, I’m stuck to you like glue, querida.” Rafe threw his duffle on top of her case and slammed the trunk. “Get used to it.” The cocky grin slanting across his face screamed I don’t trust you anymore than you trust me, and it sent Lisa’s blood pressure skyrocketing.
A plane rumbled overhead. The October chill cooled Lisa’s skin but did little to settle the smoldering temper she’d been fighting since the morning she’d awoken alone in Italy.
Muttering curses, she stalked around the car and jerked the driver side door open.
“I’ll drive,” he said, stepping up behind her and grasping the open door. “In your mood, you’ll probably plow headfirst into a pylon, just to make a point.”
She whipped around and bumped into his solid chest. Clenching her jaw at his closeness, at his attempt to dive in and take over, she brushed her hair back and looked up. “You know the mean streets of Chicago, Slick?”
When he rolled his eyes, she turned and slipped into the driver seat. “Just get in, Sullivan. And hold on.”
“You’ve got serious control issues, you know that?” He clutched the armrest as she jerked the small car out of O’Hare’s rental lot and pulled into traffic on I-90.
The guy had some nerve. She changed lanes. “You’re talking to me about control? Nice one.”
He only grunted next to her.
Red brake lights flashed ahead in the dim light of early evening, and she shifted lanes again, easing around a semi. In her peripheral vision, she watched Rafe’s knuckles turn white against the armrest of the sedan as she whipped in and out of traffic. A smile curled her lips, the first one she’d felt in days.
But it was quickly blanketed by the thought of what lay ahead to night. She’d