“Good.” She stepped forward to meet me. “That’s why I’ve been following you. I was hoping we could….”
Her words stopped abruptly as Guido and Massha rose from the bushes and moved to join us.
“Well, look who’s here,” Massha said, flashing one of her less pleasant smiles.
“If it isn’t the little bird who sang to the vampires,” Guido leered, matching my apprentice’s threatening tone.
The girl favored them with a withering glance, then faced me again.
“I was hoping we could talk alone. I’ve got a lot to say and not much time to say it. It would go faster if we weren’t interrupted.”
“Not a chance, Sweetheart,” Guido snarled. “I’m not goin’ to let the Boss out of my sight with you around.”
“. . . besides which, I’ve got a few things to tell you myself,” Massha added, “like what I think of folks who think frames look better on people than on paintings.”
The girl’s eyes never left mine. For all her bravado, I thought I could detect in their depths an appeal for help.
“Please,” she said softly.
I fought a brief skirmish in my mind, and, as usual, common sense lost.
“All right.”
“WHAT! C’mon, Boss. You can’t let her get you alone! If her pals are around….”
“Hot Stuff, if I have to sit on you. you aren’t going to….”
“Look!” I said, wrenching my eyes away from the girl to confront my mutinous staff. “We’ll only go a few steps down the road there, in plain sight. If anything happens you’ll be able to pitch in before it gets serious.”
“But….”
“. . . and you certainly can’t think she’s going to jump me. I mean, it’s a cinch she isn’t carrying any concealed weapons.”