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"Okay, well, h customers, your mother"

I shudder, then lay my head on his shoulder--carefully, so as not to disturb his rib--wrapping one arm around him "Why do you think I told you to leave it alone? My God, Cooper, you could have been killed"

He grins crookedly, then winces "Glad to hear you have so much faith in uy"

"Sorry to disappoint you, Heather, but I don’t uys in my line of work I’ out with mobsters? Because I’m pretty sure Ricardo owed money to the Mob"

"Well, that could explain why he was so interested in yourher when she ca this afternoon She headed straight to Fifth Avenue to hit all the usual suspects--Tiffany’s, Bergdorf’s, Van Cleef and Arpels It wasn’t until we got to Prada that I realized I wasn’t the only one tailing her"

I lifted ht hinized hied a bit, but not that much Plus, he’s a pretty crummy tail He had on a trench coat and fedora, pulled do over his face, for Christ’s sakes Who wears an outfit like that when it’s eighty degrees outside? The guy’s clearly an amateur"

"So what did you do?" I ask

"I said, ‘Hey, Ricardo, long tiuy’s so freaked out, he pulls a knife on asp and sit up "Cooper! Are you crazy? You could have been stabbed"

"There were ladies present, including your nantly "What was I supposed to do? As soon as she recognized Ricardo, yourlike she’d seen the antichrist And even then, it took store security forever to figure out as going on and call the cops By the time they arrived, old Ricardo and I were already out on the sidewalk He tried to push me under a cab--"

"Where was my mom?" I interrupt

"Disappeared," Cooper says "Didn’t see her again once the cops peeled Ricardo and hts about my mother, who hadn’t even had the decency to stick around to helphalf beaten to death by her ex--even if Cooper had eventually turned things around, and ended up winning the fight

"Anyway, it just goes to show," Cooper says, playing with a long strand of s aren’t alhat they seem"