Chasing Shadows (First Wives #3)(73)

Avery didn’t try to argue. Since Sasha worked with Reed, it stood to reason there were other security guards hidden in the crowd.

For a couple of blocks, Avery stared out the window and worked through the quick change in events. “You’re not going to tell me to go home. Tell me my search is in vain?”

“I know a thing or two about revenge.”

“I guess you would.” Considering the woman’s father had killed her mother and nearly killed her. Sasha was a poster child for a life bent on revenge.

“I applaud your tenacity, but your execution is pathetic.”

“Hey, I don’t do this as a lifestyle.”

“Based on the bruise on your face, that’s obvious.”

“Battle scars.”

Was that a smile on Sasha’s face?

No, couldn’t be.

The cabbie dropped them off once he reached the tourist mecca of the city.

“What have you learned? Two weeks here, there must be something.” Sasha walked with long strides, forcing Avery to keep up.

“The best tattoo artist in the city is in the Meatpacking District. Very expensive and months out on appointments. But the parlors I’ve been to point the finger to him being the guy who did the art on Spider.”

“You call him Spider?”

Avery followed Sasha as she crossed the street without heeding the light.

“Spider-Man is a superhero.”

“You’re sure of this artist?”

Much as she would have loved to say yes, she couldn’t. “No. But it’s the only solid anything I’ve found.”

Sasha opened the door to a diner and stepped in.

“What are we doing here?”

For the first time, Sasha removed her sunglasses and looked Avery in the eye. “You look like shit. What have you lost, two, three kilograms?”

“Yeah, maybe a couple of pounds.”

Sasha glared and took a seat in a booth as far away from people as she could. “We’ll talk while you eat.”

Since Armstrong had stolen her appetite at breakfast, and it was getting close to dinnertime, Avery’s stomach growled.

Avery tried to order a soup and salad, but Sasha interrupted and ordered two hamburgers, loaded, soup instead of fries.

“I feel like I’m having lunch with my mother’s evil twin.”

Sasha did have a smile. Brief, but it was there.

“Tell me everything about Spider. Every tiny detail you remember.”

Avery started from the beginning, adding little things that had come to her over the past two weeks. The meal came and Avery continued to talk while she ate.

By the time she finished her meal, nothing but the pickle was left on her plate, and she was out of information to share.

“Do you know anything of the man my father sent to kill you? The man who the police said attacked you?”

“Not really. I called him Scarface. He went by Krueger when he was alive.”

Sasha nodded. “He was an amateur. Liked dealing drugs more than killing people. My father’s resources were not unlimited, and hiring a professional would have meant you’d be dead, and your killer would never be found.”

Avery swallowed the chill. “I’m happy Daddy was hard up for money.”

“Why did you decide to search nightclubs?”

“Because the guy seemed young to me. A punk. The tattoo was expensive and his shoes were new. He’s like the guy you see at a bar where you move down four stools and squeeze between two strangers because you don’t want him hitting on you.”

Sasha tapped a perfectly plain manicured finger on her water glass. “What did he smell like?”

Avery sat back. “Smell. I don’t know. I didn’t . . .”

“You said he wore pants that were too big, frayed. A sweatshirt, but the sleeves hung down and easily displayed his tattoo when he grabbed you.”

“Yes.”

The waitress stopped at the table. “Anything else?”

“A bag, please.” Sasha pulled money from a pocket.

Avery noticed her uneaten burger. “You weren’t hungry?”

“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”

They exited the diner and immediately left the tourist block and moved down an alley.

“Tell me what you smell,” Sasha demanded.

That was easy. “Garbage.”

They stepped around puddles of unidentifiable liquid, past an abandoned cardboard box that looked like it had been someone’s home.

“And now? What do you smell?”

“Urine. Why?”

“Humor me.” Sasha led her down a few more blocks. While there were still people everywhere, they weren’t shoulder to shoulder.

For what felt like no reason, Sasha stopped walking and stepped off of the sidewalk and against a building. “That man. What do you see?” She pointed to a sad staple that plagued every major city in the country.

“A homeless man begging for change.”

Sasha sighed. “I see hunger, despair. Someone who has given up on life.”

She pushed away from the building, and they crossed the street to the man she was talking about. When she reached him, she leaned down. “Are you hungry?” she asked him.

His eyes tracked her with caution, his gaze shifted to Avery.