It was good to hear her sound amused. It did a lot to clear the frustration fog from his head. “I was about to make a call.” And that was just rude. Lenny made him trip over his own tongue. What was the deal with that? Get it together.
“This won’t take long. I read your information pack on Sonny Ozols, and I have questions. Have I called at a bad time? Are you going to hang up on me?”
“No, no. I thought I’d never hear from you again.” He certainly never wanted to think about dancing with her again. It made him want things that didn’t come in an auction catalogue. Things made of silken skin and subtle perfume, of intelligent eyes and sharp wits. Things designed to affect his pulse and narrow his focus and—
“Believe me this isn’t my idea of a good use of my time.”
—make him completely lose track.
She sounded less amused and more exasperated now. “I don’t understand how you know about gold taps and diamond inlaid floors, silk carpets, suits tailored in Saville Row London, and dried mango flown into Ossovia from Australia.”
“We have research capabilities.”
“Like the CIA.”
“Nowhere near as—” Ah, she was being sarcastic. “The better you know your enemy, the easier it is to bring him down.”
“How do I know this isn’t some fairy story you’ve invented?”
It was the right question to ask. “You don’t.”
“That’s it. You’re not going to spin me some yarn, try to convince me?”
The double blind of not being credible. “That wouldn’t be a good use of my time.”
She made a sound of annoyance like an insect trapped behind glass. “If everything in your email is correct, this man is evil and dangerous.”
“Yes.”
“Yes? That’s all you’ve got?”
“Everyone I do business with is rotten in some way. That’s why I do business with them.”
“Surely not everyone has the responsibilit
y for a whole country.”
True. Halsey’s investors ran major companies, bought political favor, and used wealth and privilege to grow more wealth and privilege at the expense of people who couldn’t. “Sonny Ozols is a special kind of rotten.”
She gave a little growl, and it tickled pleasantly up his spine. It would be the most wonderful sound to hear if he was—
“I want answers. I’ve set up a meeting with the Heroes League.”
No, hell, no. “You can’t do that, Lenny. The information I’ve given you is confidential. It was for your eyes only.” He’d typed that on the cover in large red sans serif font. “You can’t use it.” She certainly couldn’t know who else at the United Heroes League was on Cookie Jar’s crooked payroll, and how they might react to hearing themselves exposed.
“What do you mean I can’t use it?”
“It wouldn’t be safe.” Shit, he should’ve thought she might do this.
“For you?”
“For you.”
There was a long moment of silence and then she said, “Did you mean that to sound as intimidating as it did?”
He sucked in a breath and blew it out. “Yes. I did.”
“And here I thought you knew how to lie to a girl. What do you mean it wouldn’t be safe for me?”