"I remember."

"Well, I just got this crazy idea that you were Barbie's killer and you were there to kill me." I leaned forward and placed my hand an inch away from where his rested, an act I hoped would convey a renewed trust. "It was based on no facts whatsoever, just my own bizarre hysteria."

Anatoly took a long sip of his beer.

"I'm sorry." My eyes unwillingly traveled over to Jason before I quickly returned them to the table. "As you can see I have no good excuse, but do you think you could forgive me anyway?"

Anatoly stared at me for what felt like an eternity. Then a smile crept onto his mouth. "Of course I can forgive you. If I had a dime for every time a woman threatened me with a kitchen knife-"

"You'd be rich by now?"

"I don't know about rich, but at least I'd have ten cents."

I giggled and took a small sip of my drink. "Well, I try to be original." Anatoly's hand covered my knee under the table. I tried not to recoil. Fortunately my cell rang, which gave me the excuse to shift my weight away from him while I answered it.

"Hey, it's me, we're in," Dena said.

"Hi, you."

"The window was open a crack just like Marcus predicted, so getting in was a cinch."

"Uh-huh, great, anything else?" Dena calling me to describe the break-in was not only unnecessary, it was reckless.

"No, that's not it. We found something."

I glanced quickly up at Anatoly. "Oh, really? What?"

"Pictures, Sophie. Photos of you. Along with pretty much every book review and newspaper clipping that has ever mentioned your name. But, Sophie, it's the pictures. There are photos of you having coffee, talking to Marcus, talking with me and Mary Ann, having lunch with your sister and nephew. The guy's obsessed."

My heart fell to the bottom of my stomach. My friends and family. What if he had tried something when I was with Jack?

"Sophie? Sophie, are you still there?"

"Yeah. Look, it sounds like you're on the right track. So why don't you just keep doing what you're doing and we'll talk later."

"Got it. Be careful, Sophie."

"That was my sister." I put the phone back into my purse. "She thinks her husband is cheating on her and she's going through kind of a crisis right now." Funny how you could lie and tell the truth at the same time.

"Must be tough," he said as he tried to get the attention of our cocktail waitress.

"They have a kid."

"Like I said, must be tough. She should hire a private investigator to make sure she's right before she does anything."

"That's a little dramatic, don't you think?"

Anatoly shrugged. "People do it all the time."

"Well, I don't think that's her style. I don't expect her to call again, but I'm going to keep my cell phone on just in case I have to talk her down from a window ledge or something."

"Do you really think she'd kill herself over this?"

"No, no, I was just making a bad joke."

Anatoly lifted his eyebrows. "Considering recent events, I would think you would be afraid of jinxing yourself."

Had he just threatened my sister? The waitress came over and Anatoly ordered another beer. He eyed my drink. "Is there something wrong with your Bloody Mary?"

"No." I took another small sip. "I just didn't eat much today, so I'm taking it slow."

"I thought you just came from dinner at your parents."

"I did. I just didn't like the food." Could I be more inept?

"You look beautiful tonight." Anatoly reached over and put a gentle hand under my chin, lifting it ever so slightly. "Perhaps I'll skip my drink as well, and we can go somewhere more private."

"No!"

Anatoly started.

I swallowed and tried to make my voice smoother. "I mean, you just ordered your drink and I do plan on drinking this eventually. Can't let a good Bloody Mary go to waste, that's sacrilegious."

The cocktail waitress placed the beer in front of Anatoly, and he drank half of it in one swig. "I would hate for you to be sacrilegious." He then lifted my drink and held it in front of me. "L'chaim." He pressed the glass against my lips and slowly tipped it forward. If the acoustics in the room were better he would have been able to hear my heart pounding.

My cell phone rang again, and Anatoly put the glass down while I snatched the phone out of my purse. "Hello?"

"Sophie, it's Marcus. Get out of there. Get as far away from him as humanly possible."

"Why?'

"I found the hatchet. It was duct-taped to the underside of his bed. Sophie, it still has bloodstains on it."

I looked up at Anatoly. He was smiling at me and wiping off the drops of the red liquid that had spilled onto his fingers.

CHAPTER 19.

"Alicia knew that if she wanted to live she would have to face the man who coveted her death."

-Sex, Drugs and Murder "Sophie? Did you hear me?" Marcus asked. "You need to get your ass out of there."

"I heard you." I smoothed a wrinkled cocktail napkin. "You know I'm always here for you, Leah. Just give me a few minutes and I'll head on over."

"Where shall we meet-the police station?"

"No, no, why don't you meet me out by the car. That way I won't have to worry about waking Jack."

"You want Dena and me to wait in Mary Ann's car until you have a chance to talk more freely?"

"Exactly."

"Should I take the hatchet?"

"No." I rolled my eyes for Anatoly's benefit. "Don't do anything. Just wait for me."

"Okay, but hurry, Sophie. It's a bad idea to hang out at the scene of a crime, and it's an even worse idea to hang out with a murderer."

"Right, well, see you in a bit."

"You are an extraordinarily dedicated sister," Anatoly said.

"What?" My voice sounded small to me. Everything seemed small except Anatoly, who had become enormous.

"Are you really going to rush out and comfort her right now?"

I was seeing him for the first time. He was human. "I have to go to her. She's my sister, and her life..." He had killed JJ Money and allowed an innocent man to go to prison for it, he had killed his mentor, he had killed a woman with a hatchet, and then come back to my apartment to seduce me and had not even been shaken or rattled. "Her life's a mess right now..." He had been calm and charming. "She needs me." Perfectly charming.

He scrutinized me over his beer. "Are you all right? You look pale." He gently lifted my hand. "You're shaking."

"I just-I just didn't expect this. I thought that she and Bob were really going to make it. That theirs was the real thing. But it wasn't. It was an illusion, a lie, and now...now everything's falling apart."

He squeezed my hand.

"Things, and people, aren't always as they seem. It's a hard lesson to learn, but one that is taught over and over again."

I pulled my hand away. "I have to make a stop in the ladies' room."

"All right. I'll settle the tab." He was acting concerned, but there was a note of suspicion in his voice, as well. I had to pull it together before I gave everything away.

I tucked my phone back into my purse. "I'll be right back." I brushed past Jason just as he was hanging up his cell phone. There was a thin layer of sweat covering his features. So it had finally become real to him. I knew that before this he hadn't truly believed that Anatoly was a cold-blooded killer any more than he believed he was going to become a vampire. He clung to the fantasy the way most children clung to the idea of the Easter Bunny. They would swear to its existence, but if they ever met a real six-foot, smiling, egg-throwing rabbit they would run for their lives. I suspected that's what Jason wanted to do right now.

There were a few women already in the bathroom fixing their makeup. I stood behind them and stared at my reflection. I wasn't supposed to be there. None of this was supposed to be happening. I should be having drinks with Dena, working on my next book. I wasn't supposed to be fighting for my life.

One of the women assumed I was waiting for a space by the mirror and cleared out. I took a step closer and pretended to look for a lipstick. I needed to call the police. I watched as the other woman walked out. There was a very big problem. I couldn't tell the police what I knew without admitting to them that my friends and I had broken into his apartment. That would not only get all of us in some boiling water, but it would leave room for the possibility that we had planted the hatchet. I looked back up at the mirror. The room had taken on a surreal, nightmare-like quality. How could none of us have thought of that? I was in exactly the same position I'd been in before the evening began.

My cell phone rang again. This time it was Jason. "What the fuck are you doing in there? We have to get the hell out of here."

"I'm going to invite him to my place for a drink."

"What?"

"Marcus has a key to my apartment. Call him and tell him to go up there right now and hide. The bathroom-behind the shower curtain would be perfect. Tell him to bring the phone in there with him. He is in no way to make himself known to Anatoly. I'll find him when it's time."

"Are you mental? Time for what?"

"Just tell him, Jason."

"I can't believe-got to go." The line went dead.

I replaced the phone and dragged my lipstick across my lips. "This is it," I whispered. "The game ends tonight. That fucker's going down."

I made an attempt at fixing my hair before rejoining Anatoly. "I was just on the phone with my sister again. I changed my mind, I'll deal with her tomorrow. Tonight, I want to spend with you."

"Oh?" His eyes fell to my newly painted lips. "Do you want another drink, then?"

"No, no this place is way too packed. Let's go somewhere a little more intimate."

"I'm open to suggestions."

I reached up and lightly caressed his shoulder. "My place can be intimate."

Anatoly's eyes slanted. "You want to bring me up to your place?"

"Mmm-hmm, don't worry. I haven't sharpened the kitchen knives in ages."

"Good to know."

"So is that a yes, or are you scared?"

He cocked his head to the left. "I think I can handle myself."

"Good." I dipped my finger into my Bloody Mary and sucked the liquid off. "Did you bring your bike?"

"Yes."

"Then parking will only be a problem for one of us. Why don't you follow me? That way you won't have to wait in front of my place while I look for a spot."

"All right." Anatoly stood up and started to put on his leather jacket. "By the way, if you were worried about that crazy man who's been staring at you all night, I used the time that you were in the bathroom to speak with him."

I dropped my keys. Anatoly retrieved them for me. "What, um...what crazy man?"

"The one who felt the need to share his colorful views on art during Balardi's opening at Sussman Gallery. Didn't you notice him? I thought I saw you looking at him earlier."

I didn't trust myself to speak, so I just shook my head. Anatoly took me by the shoulders and turned me around so that I was facing Jason's direction. Maybe a vampire had found him, because all of his coloring was gone. He didn't look up. He just sat there studying the bubbles in his beer. I tried to relax underneath his grip. "He looks a little like him but I don't think he's the same guy. The other guy was skinnier."

"That's him. He's been talking on his cell phone all night. Kind of like you."

I tried to laugh but it came out as more of a gasp for air. "What did you say to him?"

"I told him that it would be very unwise of him to be following you if that was what he was doing. He claims that he's here waiting for a friend who's running late. The way he's been looking at me makes me think otherwise but it doesn't matter. I don't think he'll give you any problems, he doesn't have the same bravado this evening."