13

THE LUNCHEON

In the end, I decide it’s best not to tell Grant about my plans to infiltrate the Upper East Side.

“You look awfully fancy today,” he says as I root through the closet in nothing but a black pencil skirt and my new bioluminescent bra. As my wardrobe is ninety percent cat-burglar chic, the glow-in-the-dark flashes of my breasts are the only color to be seen.

“That’s because I’m having lunch with my grandmother. Aha!” I hold up a not-black tank top in triumph. It’s dark gray, but it still counts. “Do you know if Café Boulud has a dress code?”

Grant doesn’t answer right away. Thinking he’s left the room, I turn around to find him standing with his arms crossed and a darkly suspicious look on his face.

“They do, don’t they?” I sigh. “Great. I knew I should have tried to talk her into ordering pizza instead.”

“Good try. Where are you going?”

“Um. I just said. Café Boulud. Not my choice, in case it gives you ideas about where to take me for our next anniversary.”

He continues that disconcerting stare.

“What?” I ask. “You know how awkward I get at those fancy places.”

He clears his throat. “The last time you said you were having lunch with your grandmother, you broke about fifteen federal laws.”

I don’t manage to suppress the laughter that bubbles in my throat. I’d already forgotten about my cover story the day of the FBI break-in—my conscience never holds on to things for long. It’s an occupational necessity.

“I know, but I mean it this time.”

I saunter over to him and run my hands up his sides, slipping them under his suit jacket to finger the outline of his holster. There’s leather and metal and cotton and skin—all of it warm to the touch and capable of sending my pulse skittering. It’s perverse to find the law-abiding side of him so attractive, but I can’t help myself. The man knows his way around a pair of handcuffs.

“Penelope…” he warns.

“It’s true!” I protest even as I continue fingering his badge. “I don’t make enough of an effort. I want to start trying harder to get to know her.”

He hesitates but lets the lie pass. I suspect the only reason I get away with it is because it technically isn’t a lie. When I first discovered I had a grandmother—an event that not-so-coincidentally aligned with the rediscovery of my father—I’d been elated to think I had a maternal relative within city limits. My emotional world was suddenly full of possibilities. The two of us could hang out, catch up on our lives, and, most importantly, talk about my mother. There were so many things I wanted to know about the woman who gave her life to bring me into this world and so few people willing or able to tell me.

Unfortunately, Grandma Dupont—or Erica, as she demands I call her—was another dead end. No sooner would I mention my mother’s name than she’d ask me where I picked up so much street slang or command me to adjust my posture.

“She seemed really surprised to hear from me when I called,” I add. “She also offered me money, which is weird. Is she afraid I’m going to rob her if she doesn’t pay me off ahead of time?”

“Of course not.”

“Then what does it mean?” I wrinkle my nose, remembering the way she’d couched the offer, without kindness or preamble. Okay, Penelope. How much do you need? “It almost felt like she was bribing me to go away.”

Grant’s expression gentles. “I’m sure that wasn’t her intention.”

“Then what was?”

“My guess?” He lifts a hand to my face and runs the back of his fingers against my cheek. It’s a tender gesture at odds with his words. “You scare the shit out of her.”

I’m startled into another laugh, though this one feels rougher around the edges. “Very funny. The only thing that woman is scared of is her accountant. Well, and maybe the lady who cleans her house. I bet she knows where all the expensive stuff is hidden.”

He presses a soft kiss to my forehead. “You have no idea, do you?”

“You think she keeps her valuables somewhere else? That’s smart, given that the Blue Fox is her son-in-law. It can’t be easy, marrying into my family.”

“Truer words have never been spoken, but that’s not what I meant,” he says. Taking the gray tank top from my hand, he motions for me to lift my arms. With painstaking care, he slips the fabric over my head and shoulders, taking his time as he tucks it into place. If he were serious about seduction, he’d caress the swell of my breasts and grip the curve of my waist, his fingers pressing a familiar pattern.

This morning, however, his thoughts are elsewhere. Instead of taking my arched back as an invitation to linger, he trails his fingers up the line of my spine and pulls me into his embrace. He dips his head to kiss the sensitive spot below my ear, his lips moving against my skin as he adds, “You scare the shit out of everyone.”

A shiver runs through me. “That’s not true.”

He pauses, as if choosing his next words carefully. “She offered you money because she doesn’t know what else to do.”

“That’s not true,” I protest again. “She probably offers everyone money. That way she can yell at them to sit up straighter, and they can’t complain.”

“Or—and I’m just throwing this out there—she doesn’t know what else she can give you. She wants to make up for the past, and she wants you to feel supported, but trying to do anything for someone as willfully self-sufficient as you requires three layers of armor and a nerve of iron.”

I strongly suspect him of mocking me. “A Hallmark card would do the trick.”

“Only if she held it against your neck and threatened to slit your throat with it.” He releases his grip on me, his gaze clouded as his eyes meet mine. “You don’t make it easy, Penelope. You know that, right?”

I don’t, actually, and I’m not sure I want him to continue. A difficult wife sounds an awful lot like a disposable one.

“Are you saying I should take the money?” I ask.

“I’m saying you should be gentle with her, that’s all. Like the rest of us, she only wants to make you happy. She just doesn’t know how to do it.” He looks at me as if searching for something. I don’t think he finds whatever it is, because he shakes his head. “A good challenge and a better adversary. That’s all you want out of life, isn’t it?”

I have no idea what he’s talking about, but both of those things sound lovely.

“Just…” He shakes his head again. “Be nice to her today, okay? And for the love of everything that’s holy, promise me you won’t take any unnecessary risks.”

Now he’s not mocking so much as insulting me. “All the risks I take are necessary ones, thank you very much.”

“Why do I get the feeling this isn’t a regular lunch date?”

“Because you’re a highly suspicious and untrusting man,” I say and then laugh. There’s no real use in trying with him. “And because you have the annoying tendency to be right about these things.”

His eyes flash. “Penelope, so help me…”

I get up on my tiptoes to kiss his nose before ducking under his arm and out of his reach. Being quick on my feet sure comes in handy sometimes. “Don’t worry so much. It’s lunch at an upscale French restaurant. What could go wrong?”

His reply is a loud curse I won’t bother repeating. Ladies who lunch at Café Boulud would never repeat that sort of profanity.

* * *

“Penelope, I know you’re flexible, but please tell me there’s a spine somewhere inside that body of yours.”

I shoot up so quickly, I almost drop my spoon into the bowl of beef-flavored water. According to my grandmother’s impeccably accented French, the soup is called consommé, but I’m pretty sure it’s a long con that France has been playing on the world for centuries. Twenty dollars a bowl for this?

“Sorry,” I say with a sheepish wince. “It’s habit.”

“Not a very good one.”

“Sorry,” I say again—my fifth apology in as many minutes and, if things keep progressing like this, not even close to my last. I’m not sure what distorted view Grant has of my relationship with this woman, but I seriously doubt she’s the one in need of three layers of armor. “I’ve never been very good at sitting up straight. Or sitting still, for that matter.”

My grandmother blinks at me slowly. Well, maybe not slowly so much as purposefully. All of her movements are like that. She’s languid in a way that screams elegance and power, as if she possesses the ability to control time itself. The urge to emulate her is strong, but I get the feeling I’d end up looking like a sloth.

“How on earth did you sit inside air vents for hours if you can’t be still?”

I laugh. That’s the other thing I admire about my grandmother. She’s not one to tiptoe around the truth.

“It wasn’t easy; I can tell you that. I also get claustrophobic in tight spaces. I had to teach myself to breathe through it.”

She pats the edges of her shell-pink mouth with her napkin. “Well, no one can say you aren’t committed to your chosen profession. You got that from your grandfather.”

“Actually, I think I got it from—”

She blinks at me again. “He had a great work ethic, your grandfather.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Arguing with her would be futile. So far, she’s been pretty accepting of the fact that her granddaughter is a criminal, which says a lot, considering Erica disowned my mom the day she married my dad. This is a woman who has convictions and sticks to them. “I’m sorry I never got a chance to meet Grandfather. What was he like?”

It’s the wrong question. That same shell-pink mouth—which matches the pantsuit she’s wearing to perfection—purses tightly. “You know I don’t like dwelling on the dead.”

I do know. I also know that what she’s really saying is under no circumstances should I mention my mom or try to introduce her into the conversation. It’s the same whenever I try to talk to my dad about her—something I learned as a child and had to rediscover a few short months ago. Not now, maybe later, why don’t you run along and play. Twenty-six years have passed, and the pain of my mother’s loss is still so strong that neither one of them can even say her name out loud.

She must have been something special to foster that kind of love and devotion. And they both had to trade her in for me.

“Maybe another time.” I manage a small smile. “That’s not what I’m here for anyway.”

“Ah. Now we get to the heart of the matter. I thought there might be a reason for this unprecedented event. What’s the amount?”

I can’t decide whether or not to be insulted. After a moment’s reflection, I decide there’s no point. It’s no different than me offering Riker my life’s savings to bail him out of trouble. I want to do more for him—so much more—but I can only reach out so far on my own. At some point, he’s going to have to reach back.

Oh, geez. Was Grant right? Am I that hard to help?

“It’s not money.” I trail my spoon through the pretend soup, which has now gone cold. “I was, um, sort of hoping you might take me to some events over the next few weeks.”

“Events.” There’s nothing in her tone to make this easier.

“Yeah. I know I’m not exactly the debutante type, and you probably aren’t eager to trot me out and show me off to all your friends, but—”

“You mean social events? Charity functions?”

I look up, hoping her face might show a glimpse of the humanity her voice is lacking.

It doesn’t. My grandmother is beautiful—well preserved, with a classic look that time can’t touch—but she’s not what you’d call approachable. Then again, I’m not what you’d call squeamish.

“Charity functions, parties, dinners…” I leave the list open-ended. “I’m not picky. What sorts of things do you and your friends normally do?”

There’s a shrewd look to her narrowed eyes that makes me think she knows what I’m really asking—where do all the rich people congregate?—but her shrewdness goes deep enough that she doesn’t voice her suspicions. Instead, she says, “Most of the time, I hide from charity functions, parties, and dinners because they’re mind-numbingly dull and frequented by self-indulgent egoists.”

I release a shout of laughter. It’s hardly a ladylike response in a setting like this one, and I draw the attention of several diners seated around us. Most of the couples dismiss me as quickly as I do them, but one woman seated on the other side of the bar does a double take.

There’s only enough time for me to take note of her smooth black bob and catlike eyes before I turn my head the opposite direction. Please, please don’t let that be someone I’ve robbed in the past. Please, please say she’s merely admiring my tinkling laughter and air of natural grace.

I turn my laugh into a discreet cough. “Does that mean you won’t take me anywhere?”

“Of course not,” my grandmother says crisply. “They’re only dull because I don’t have anyone to show off. I haven’t had anyone to show off in a long time.”

My brow wrinkles in confusion, but I don’t have an opportunity to ask her to elaborate, because the waiter returns to remove our soup and present us with an artfully arranged pile of weeds. Oh, I’m sorry. Salad.

I use the distraction to sneak a peek at the bobcat across the bar and immediately wish I hadn’t. Her eyes—even from this distance, I can see that they’re dark and sharp—have focused on me with an intensity I know from long experience doesn’t bode well. I want to ask my grandmother who the woman is, but by the time the waiter leaves, she’s already launched into a plan of action.

“It’s better to ease you in gently, so we’ll start with a tea party meeting next week,” she says without room for question—not my question, not hers, and not, apparently, the bobcat’s, because her attention finally turns away.

I guess a ferocious grandparent who doesn’t take crap from anyone comes in handy sometimes.

“A tea party meeting?” I ask. “What does that mean?”

“It means you don’t need to worry about the details—the Ladies’ Society needs to finalize plans for our annual Black and White Ball, and Millie Ralph has been trying to find a way into my house for years. A tea party is the way to do it. She’ll jump at the chance to snoop around, and where Millie goes, the rest will follow.”

“Who’s Millie Ralph?”

She waves her hand. “A terrible woman. Meddlesome and loud. You needn’t worry about her.” But then she leans over the table, her fork poised as if to stab. “But I’d appreciate it if you made an effort to at least look the part when you arrive. That’ll show her.”

I’m almost scared to ask. “Show her what?”

“That there’s some fight in the Duponts yet. We never stay down for long.”

“But I’m not a—”

The fork remains firmly in place. “You are a Dupont, and it will behoove you to remember that. You might think your courage comes from that crook of a man you call father, but I know better. No one except my granddaughter could have pulled off half the things you’ve done in your lifetime.”

I have no response to that, which is just as well, because she’s not done yet.

“Now. Eat your salad, and try not to shovel it all in as if you’ve never seen food before. Honestly, Penelope, didn’t anyone teach you to use a fork?”