“You son of a bitch!” Everyone in the restaurant looked over, but Tia didn’t flinch. “You really are behind all this bullshit!”

“I’m not, Tia! I’ve got problems of my own.”

“You’re trying to weaken me so you can swoop in and, what? What’s your business with me anyway, Marcus? You could go ahead and steal my idea and stick the government on me and send me creepy threats without coming here and rubbing my face in it! My God, you really are sick!”

“Threats? What threats?”

“Like you don’t know.”

“Tia, for the last time,” Marcus said, a parental snap to his tone, “I’ve done nothing to you. I’d like to help you, if I can.”

“And that’s why you’re here, to help me?”

Marcus took another sip of wine and swallowed hard. “That’s not the reason for my visit, of course; how could I know you’d be in need of any help at all?” That made sense to her, so she bit back on her increasing ire and let him go on. “No, I have to confess, I came when I heard about your Longshadows project—”

“Company,” Tia said. “A baking soda volcano is a project.”

Marcus chucked and nodded, conciliatory. “Of course.”

“So you came all the way to New York just to congratulate me?”

“What makes you think I haven’t been living in New York all this time?” For this Tia had no answer and no interest in concocting one. She was the one with the pressing question, and she wasn’t about to be satisfied with anything less than the truth.

“I thought we might join forces,” Marcus said.

“No,” Tia said, quick and curt.

“Tia, hear me out.”

“No,” Tia said, “never.”

“We could pool our resources, our client lists; as one single company we eliminate the only other major competition—each other.”

“What if I don’t mind a little competition?”

“What if I let you deal with your tax problems on your own?”

“I knew it,” Tia said, slapping her flattened hand onto the table. “I wanted to believe you.”

“And you must, if you don’t want them to bring your company down. Tia, if the Feds want to destroy you, they’ll do it one way or the other.”

“And how can you prevent that?”

“I have friends, Tia; you know I do. They’re not coming after me.”

“Because you’re sending them after me!”

Marcus leaned back with a huff. “If I can’t convince you, I don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t say anything then,” Tia said. “I am not handing my company over to you, Marcus.”

“I’m talking about a partnership, Tia! We’d be equal partners—”

“Suppose I’m bringing in more money, more assets?”

“We’d each be contributing in different ways. You’d be safe, we’d corner the market together. What could be so …disdainful to you?”

“Because I don’t trust you, Marcus. Because I built that company and because I’d fight to my death to keep it—”

“Actually, you stole the idea from me, as we both agreed earlier.”

“Too bad,” Tia said. “You snooze, you lose.”

“I’m opening up an office here in New York.”

“You’re…you’re what?”

“I’ve been operating in Europe, mostly. That’s how I heard about you—your Paris operatives. Don’t blame them, however; they were very discrete. How could they know who I was, what our history together was? Anyway, I came out here hoping we could come to some agreement, in the good spirit of our past…friendship. But if you’re going to open up shop in my territory, I think it’s only fair to do the same.”

Tia gave it some thought. She knew there weren’t that many of her rarified clients to go around, and even New York City wasn’t big enough for two companies for this particular specialty.

She also knew that whatever Marcus was saying, he was almost certainly responsible for her problems with the Federal government, so walking out on him was just as dangerous as sitting back down.

Tia sat back down.

“Suppose you close up your Paris office,” Marcus said, “and stay out of Europe. I’ll stay out of the United States and we can go on as we are.”

But to do that would be to subject herself to Marcus’s backdoor dealings, which she firmly believed were even then already in motion. And they would compel her to leave the vacancy Marcus wanted, which he’d be more than ready to fill.

That was something Marcus was expert at.

Tia sat there, knowing he was reading her confusion, her consideration. He knew her choices were melting away before her very eyes. It was fight or surrender, and Tia wasn’t really in a position to do either one.

Then a third option burst into her imagination, and while she normally would have mulled it over first, the pressure of that furrowed gaze pressured her in ways she was surprised to recognize.

“What about a wager?” This peaked Marcus’s interest; he leaned forward, brows clenching. Tia went on, “We each try to kidnap the other. Whoever manages it first, wins.”

He leaned back, rubbing his bearded chin. Tia went on, “Assets, client list, everything.”

Marcus nodded slowly as he considered. “Not the first to succeed,” he said, “but the first to fail; each tries to kidnap the other and the one who fails, loses.”

Tia could hardly believe she was having the conversation, but there was no time to reflect on the strange irony of it all. “Suppose we each succeed?”

Marcus smiled. “Best two out of three. We each succeed once; the one who gets the other a second time wins…presuming you ever manage to get me at all.”

Tia’s lungs were quivering, her palms sweating. I can’t believe I’m doing this, she thought as she wiped her hand on the napkin on her lap and extended it across the table. Marcus smiled and shook her hand.

The deal was struck. It was too late for either to turn back and both of them knew it.