Page 21 (1/2)

Shoved back into the pit of resignation, her hand shook as she raised it fro away “I already told you why I think this a huge mistake But you’ve made up your mind about me and whatever I say, no e it for you” She shot hi more breath?”

His cynical pout was proof of her deductions He still prodded, “Waste some more, just for me Tell me your version of the ‘truth’”

“What do you care aboutabout me since the day I was born, Farooq? You’re probably in possession of details I don’t even remember or know”

“And how ae of your life?”

“C’ence machine must provide you with a phonebook-thick dossier on everyone who comes within a hundred feet of you”

“That’s true But I don’t have one on you”

He didn’t? But he ht My life would fill two pages Double spaced”

He clicked his tongue “That’s not a version of the truth, that’s an outright lie, Car to you, fro about the content of the book, but whatever the truth is, it’d still fill a book But neither book would contain the ed And for soated” She knew the reason, all right Because she hadn’t mattered “Then I did, but you’d erased your existence so well, I came up with only your professional portfolio, address—and a photo” His palo Was that where the photo was? “Of you and Mennah”

Her eyes reesture, her own heart battering itself against her ribs, even when she wasn’t sure what it told her

It was his clai about her that slowed her heartbeats Could it be?

She had used methods learned in the circles where people erased their pasts or reinvented themselves for safety and second chances, first to cover up parts of her past to escape the heartache, then to reht her cover-up tactics would be so effective that he wouldn’t find out everything about her if he put his mind to it

But then he probably hadn’t; had only tried to find her, not find out about her Trailing so thehed “Well, what you cah You found me, found out what I ran to hide Anyway, I never tried to hide who I a that counts”

“Really?” Hewhat you can do, in your job, in bed…” The way he said that, in such menace-coated sensuality, lad you findto be”