Valentin leaned back, face a dangerous neutral. “If we took him out, the next guy would have access to the same information?”
“Yes.”
Elizabeth cut her eyes to me and looked back to the screen. “This is the age of selling information, you guys know that, right? I could have gone to the right website and got all of my exam papers ahead of time if I’d wanted to. Whoever else you get in next is going to be open to the highest bidder just the same.”
Roman’s eyes narrowed and he shook his head. “I don’t think it’s going to be a problem.”
But Valentin raised a hand to halt him. “Forgive me, Roman, you didn’t think it would be a problem in the first place, but now here we are.”
“This wasn’t something I could have predicted.”
“No. But now we can safeguard ourselves against it from happening again.” Valentin nodded slowly, seeming to formulate his plan as he spoke. “One way or another, we need to untangle ourselves from this situation.” His eyes hardened and I got the impression he was speaking directly to Roman Rather than to me or Elizabeth.
Roman let out a low breath. “There is no way I can pull us out of the Swiss banks. We’ve got too much wound up in them, and despite this, their privacy policies do us well. They’ve got their ideas back in order again following all that tax evasion paranoia. The government isn’t about to let any whistleblowers shut down the main reason half the world banks in Switzerland. Besides, we don’t do tax evasion. We’re clean on that front and that’s usually what all this is about.”
“Not this time though,” I put in. I might not have known all that much about financial loopholes or how to keep our money circulating freely and our assets protected, but I knew the value of admitting when the situation had deviated from the plan. Roman seemed less inclined to let give ground where it came to his line of expertise.
Valentin never cared all that much about the hows of getting something done, but he always seemed to know what was needed. “We need to make sure our men are in place wherever these situations arises. We cannot make this kind of gamble again.”
Roman tugged at the collar of his shirt. “Agreed.”
“Maxim, you and Yelizaveta, make an approach. If he doesn’t like it, continue as before.”
“Understood.”
“Roman. Stay on the call. We need to talk some more about this.”
Elizabeth
In the afternoon, Maxim called me from central London, and I left the enclave of the apartment to find him.
Maxim stood square in front of me, skimming through the rack of clothing in Harvey Nics with much more interest than I would have thought he’d show. I’d stepped back from the rack like I’d been burned when I made the mistake of turning over some of the tickets and understood the kind of prices the stuff he was looking through went for. The damage Cassie and I had done in that first week was jumbo sale pricing in comparison.
He glanced over his shoulder at me, frown drawing in when he saw my reaction. “What? You need clothes like these.”
I gritted my teeth, feeling my resistance flare to life. “I really don’t. I’ve bought a lot of things already.”
“For getting to our target, you do.”
My brows rose up in surprise. “We are going to make an approach?”
“It’s looking very likely. And you’ll need to look the part.”
Anticipation made my heart drum in my chest. I loved that Valentin seemed to think I had good ideas and that Maxim was prepared to see where they went, even if they didn’t follow his usual mode of problem solving.
With a sigh I stepped back towards the rack. I understood exactly what we were doing here now. This was part of the job, just the same as all the rest of it was.
“What does a trust fund baby wear?”
Maxim grinned at me. “Mm… Something sexy, definitely.”
He leaned down, grazing a kiss against my shoulder, and I felt myself shiver as he let the tip of his nose drag along the back of my neck as he crossed to my other side. “Tight little pencil skirts and dresses, so you can pretend to be all buttoned up. Pearls.”
“You like the idea of that, do you?”
“I like the idea of taking it all off you afterwards.”
“Mm. I like the sound of that too.”
I pulled a pastel pink boucle Chanel jacket out in my size, and gritted my teeth before I held it up in front of me in the mirror.
“Like this?”
“Absolutely.”
“Wonderful.”
Maxim snorted. “You’re going to look amazing.”
Elizabeth
Max had a suitcase with him when we left his apartment. I don’t know what he had in it, but he carefully packed the spoils of our shopping trip into it too. He must have left it there the day before. Or maybe that was one of the things he was putting in place when he disappeared from the cafe while I was inside Sandra’s offices. Who knew. I didn’t think it mattered all that much.