“Buckets,” Tanner said with a giggle.
And I couldn’t help it. I started laughing too. Not just atthe thought of him crying over a romantic movie. But also just over the wholesituation. Should I really be so worried about Mr. Pruitt? He’d had years to dosomething to me and he hadn’t. Why was I still scared of him? The man criedover Titanic for God’s sake.
“See,” Tanner said. “Hilarious. Now I have an importantquestion for you. What do you think this restaurant’s nudity policy is?” Helooked around like he thought a streaker was about to run by.
What? “I’m assuming they don’t allow it. It’s arestaurant.”
“That’s a darn shame.”
“Tanner, is that really it?” I asked, hoping to steer theconversation back to whatever he found out about Mr. Pruitt.
He looked down at his notebook. “Well, I have a few morequestions, but the nudity thing really is a bummer. The food is really going tohave to make up for that deficit.”
“I’m not talking about the restaurant’s nudity policies. I’mtalking about Mr. Pruitt. Is that really all you found? There has to besomething else.”
“Oh. Well, yes. But the rest isn’t quite as funny though. Ithink it’s more of an after-dessert kind of discussion, if you know what I mean.”
“If you don’t tell me right now I’m going to leave before weeven eat.”
Tanner sighed. “As you wish. But I did warn you. This mightruin your appetite altogether. “He pulled out a few pictures from his notebook.“Before Richard went to the theater, he had some sketchy meeting. I couldn’tget inside the old warehouse to see what was going on. But I did see one of themen that came out afterward.” He poked the top image.
I stared at the image of a guy with a deep scar under one ofhis green eyes.
“I did some digging. His name is Isaac Russo. He’s a known hitman.Richard recently paid Isaac a large sum and there was another equal amount thatpopped up.” He moved the picture of Isaac to the side to show anotherintimidating hitman. “This is Isaac’s brother, Antonio. He’s been in and out ofprison over the last two decades but no verdict ever sticks if you know what Imean. I’m pretty sure he’s killed at least eight people. I think Richard hiredhim too.”
My heart was racing. But this was good news, right? Bad newsfor whoever the hit was against. But good news for me. The person trailing mewas a woman. “Well at least Scarlett isn’t really in danger. Or me. Maybe wecan use that money trail to pin a few murders on Mr. Pruitt?”
“Yeah, maybe. Although, I got all this information illegally,so probably not. And I wouldn’t say you and Scarlett are in the clear yet. TheRusso brothers are good at what they do. But not great. Or else Antonio neverwould have even stepped foot in a prison. The real problem is that there’s onemore hire. The worst hitman of all. Or should I say hitwoman. You know…becauseshe’s a woman.”
I swallowed hard. “Where’s the picture of her?” I pushed thepicture of Antonio to the side but there was no other printout.
“No known images of her I’m afraid. But she was paid recentlytoo. So she’s definitely going through with a hit soon. And I’m assuming she’sreally good because Richard dropped double the amount on her.”
“The woman that’s following me? Do you think that could beher?”
“All I know is that she’s a woman. And she’s good at her job.That’s probably why I couldn’t find a picture.”
Shit. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me this lastnight? I could have been killed.”
“Richard’s been pretty insistent that he wants to speak withyou. I doubt he’ll go through with your hit before you’ve given him the lastword.”
Maybe that was true. But that had nothing to do withScarlett. “I have to go.”
“We haven’t even gotten to the main. I heard the lobsterreally is quite lovely. I still can’t believe I wasted so many years of my lifenot eating lobster.” He shook his head.
I didn’t have time for Tanner to tell me for the tenth timethat lobster had only recently become a delicacy and that he was making up forlost time by eating loads of it. He never made any sense. My parents had servedlobster for years. It hadn’t just recently become a delicacy. “I need to tellJames everything.” I stood up and pulled on my coat.
“It’s about time you told him you’re still upset about whathappened with Brooklyn. I’m surprised it’s taken you this long. I really thinkharboring all these feelings of resentment and bitterness aren’t doing you anyfavors.”
“Not that. I’m talking about Poppy’s threat regardingScarlett. I should have told him right after it happened. I don’t know what Iwas thinking.”
“Oh, yeah. You should really get on that. Let’s just finishup here…”
This was a little more important than a fake date night. “I’msorry Tanner, but I have to go. We’ll do dinner another night.” I was alreadyhurrying out of the restaurant before he could respond.
The valet looked up at me.
“I’m in a hurry,” I said.
“Bad date?” he asked as he looked for my keys.
Something like that. Why was he taking forever? Icould see my keys from here. “Top right, one row down.”
“Ah, here we are. Let me just go…”
I grabbed the keys from his hand. “I can get it.” I pressedthe button and heard a beep somewhere to the left. I took off running. Itdidn’t take me long to find my car and hop in. I started the engine, pulled outonto the street, and almost ran right into a pedestrian.
My foot slammed onto the brakes just before my car collidedwith…Tanner? Where the hell had he even come from so quickly? Had he jilted thewaiter with the check instead of me?
Tanner patted the front of the car and shook his head. He ranhis fingers down the front of his peacoat and straightened the to-go containersin his hands that somehow hadn’t ended up on my windshield.
He walked around and opened the passenger’s side door. “Mechanicalbeasts,” he huffed. “I got our food to-go. Very fast service.”
Crazy fast. Our
