Today, though, there was nothing to tell him. For the rest of the day, and the night, she had nothing more important to do than simply be with him. They might not have much time together, so she wanted to make the most of it.

ANDIE WENT FROM being miserably unhappy to almost glowing with joy at Simon’s presence. They napped, made love again; by then the afternoon had worn away to evening and she was hungry. After showering-together-in the unremarkable and slightly stained tub, they walked down the street to an Italian restaurant.

Simon didn’t have a bag with him, so he put on the clothes he’d worn there. Andie hadn’t unpacked, on the premise that her suitcases were cleaner than the dresser drawers, so she flipped open the unzipped top of a suitcase to rummage for clean underwear. The wig box caught her eye and she hurriedly tossed a shirt over it. Thank goodness she hadn’t taken the wig out to brush it, and a wig box was fairly small and-

“What’s that?” Simon asked in an expressionless voice, silently appearing at her shoulder. He reached into the suitcase and with one finger lifted the shirt that covered the wig box.

“It’s a shirt,” Andie said, though she knew damn well that wasn’t what he was asking.

He didn’t reply. Instead he took the box from the suitcase and opened it, pulling out the wig and shaking it so the long blond strands fell free. He held it up, the synthetic curls wrapping around his forearm.

“It isn’t exactly the right color, but it’s close,” he said, still in that remote, deliberately flat tone as he turned the wig back and forth, studying it. “And it isn’t as curly.” He dropped it back into the suitcase and turned his narrowed gaze on her. There was only one reason for her to have a long, blond, curly wig, and they both knew it. “I’ll be fucked and damned if I’ll let you play bait for any stupid-ass trap the feds have dreamed up.”

Andie squared her shoulders. She believed she was doing the right thing, so she had to stand by her decision. “The feds haven’t dreamed up anything. I suggested the idea-which they didn’t go for.” She didn’t tell him it wasn’t any of his business what she did, because it was, the same way he had become her business. She had given him that right when she told him she loved him.

“Damn good thing. I haven’t killed anyone in law enforcement yet, but that would be a good place to start.”

If most people said something like that, it would be safe to assume they were exaggerating and blowing off steam. Not so with Simon. He stated facts, and he backed up his statements. Andie reached out and caught his hand; he let her, but he didn’t return the pressure.

She cupped his hand in both of hers and cradled it to her chest, just over the scar that ran from beneath her collarbone all the way to the end of her rib cage. An hour ago he had kissed that scar with the tenderness of a mother kissing a newborn, and she knew they had both been thinking about what had happened to her, and the walking miracle she was now. “I have to pay for this,” she said softly. “It came with a price, and part of that price is doing what I can, anything I can, to stop Rafael. I can’t walk away and do nothing just because I’ve fallen in love with you and would like nothing more than to spend the rest of my life sailing the ocean with you, or whatever the hell it is you do. I have to pay this debt. I have to earn this second chance.”

“Earn it some other way. Work in a soup kitchen. Give all the money to charity-”

“I’ve already done that,” she said. “Before I came here.”

“Taking care of loose ends, in case you don’t survive?”

Sarcasm lent a knife-edge to the words, but she said, “Yes,” and saw him flinch. The reaction was gone so fast it might have been an illusion, but she knew better and her heart ached for him.

“I don’t want to do anything that will take me away from you. I have another appointment with the agents tomorrow, and I promise-I promise-that if there’s any other way at all, I won’t endanger myself.”

“That isn’t good enough. I don’t want you anywhere near him regardless of whether or not he ever spends so much as an hour in jail, or if he dies rich and happy at the age of ninety. I’ve already watched you die once. I can’t do it again, Andie. I won’t.”

He pulled his hand from hers, turned, and walked to the window, though the view was of nothing more interesting than a narrow alley and the back of another building. Silently she finished getting dressed. There was nothing she could say to reassure him unless she lied, and it was ironic that she, a world-class liar, couldn’t bring herself to betray his trust. She had promised as much as she could; beyond that, she could only hope for the best.

They walked to the restaurant, where they ate in silence. It wasn’t a sullen silence, or a resentful one, but more as if they had both said all there was to say and anything else would be beating a dead horse. At the same time, she didn’t feel like making small talk and he wasn’t a small talk kind of guy; neither did she want to make plans for their future when they might not have one, which pretty much left her without anything to say.

But he held her hand as they walked back to the Holiday Inn, and after getting mostly undressed they sat on the bed, propped against the stacked pillows, and watched television. She went to sleep in the middle of a show, her head resting on his stomach.

The next morning, she called Agent Cotton and requested that they meet somewhere other than the federal building. Simon’s warning about people watching the FBI building to see who entered made Andie uneasy, the way it made her uneasy when she was shopping and noticed one of the floor security personnel watching her. She knew she wasn’t doing anything wrong, but she still didn’t like being watched; it set off some sort of primitive alarm.

What bothered her more was the possibility that Rafael had a paid informant working there, and he already had word that a woman claiming to be his ex-mistress was talking to the agents. That would give him time to think and plan, and take away the shock value of seeing her again. If she had to sacrifice herself, damn it, she didn’t want it to be for nothing.

“How about Madison Square Park?” Cotton suggested. “I’ll be in the area, so that’ll be a nice place to talk. I’ll be waiting at Conkling’s statue at one o’clock.”

Simon left around ten, merely saying that he was going to get his suitcase and he’d be back. She didn’t know where he had to go, but she waited until a little after noon before leaving, and he still hadn’t returned. She wrote a note and left it on the desk. He didn’t have a key card, but that hadn’t stopped him the day before, so she wasn’t worried about returning to find him standing in the hall waiting for her.

The day was warmer than the day before, with the wind sending fat white clouds scudding across the sky, but she was glad to have her coat. She stuffed her hands in her pockets and settled into the brisk walk of the city dweller, arriving at the park a little ahead of time. She went to the southeast corner, where the Conkling statue was. She didn’t think Senator Conkling had done anything more remarkable than freezing to death in the 1888 blizzard, but evidently that was enough to warrant a statue.

Both Agent Cotton and Agent Jackson were waiting for her, their overcoats buttoned against the wind. “I hope you like coffee,” said Cotton, extending a takeout cup to her. “I brought cream and sugar, too, if you need it.”

“Black is fine, thanks.” The warm cup felt good in her chilled hands; she took a tentative sip, not wanting to burn her mouth with too hot coffee.

“Let’s sit down over here,” said Cotton, indicating a bench nearby. They walked over and she sat between the two men, both hoping and dreading that they had come up with some viable plan.