Three Fates

She practically flew through the streets as he scurried after her.
    When she reached for the door of the bank he forgot his vow not to touch her, and his hand closed over hers. “You walk in there ready to chew a hole in somebody’s neck, people are going to notice.”
    “This is New York, Slick, nobody notices nothing.”
    “Chill it down, Cleo. You want a round with me, then we’ll have one. But right here and right now, chill it down.”
    She decided, right there and right then, that the one thing she hated most about him was that he was able to cut through the crap and maintain. “Fine.” She offered him a frozen smile. “All chilled.”
    “I’ll wait out here.” He stepped back from the door.
    He watched the traffic, cars and people. He saw no one who appeared to be interested in him and had just reached the conclusion that anyone who opted to live in a place with so many people and so much noise was either brain-damaged or would be before it was done, when Cleo came out again.
    She nodded to him, tapped her fingers lightly on her shoulder bag. He moved in so the bag and its most recent contents were tucked between their bodies.
    “We’ll take a cab back,” he said.
    “Fine. But we’re making a stop. Tia lent me two hundred. I need some damn clothes.”
    “This isn’t the time to shop.”
    “I’m not shopping, I’m buying. I’m desperate enough to settle for the Gap, and that’s going a ways for me. We can hike over to Fifth.” She was already heading in that direction, giving him no choice but to follow. “Then we’ll be sure nobody’s tailing us, I grab a couple of shirts, some jeans, we catch a cab and we’re home. Then I might just burn the clothes I’ve been stuck with since Prague.”
    He might have argued, but was a man who knew how to weigh his options quickly. He could drag her into a cab, then sit on her until they got back to Tia’s.
    Or he could give her a half hour to do what she felt she needed to do.
    “I hate it in here,” she muttered the minute they were inside. “It’s so . . . pert.” She headed for black.
    He kept so close to her side, Cleo was tempted to grab something and head to a dressing room just to see if he’d come in with her. She wouldn’t put it past him.
    Trust was obviously not the word of the day.
    She got what she considered the absolute bare essentials. Two T-shirts, a long-sleeved tee, jeans, one sweater, one shirt. All black. Then watched the total ring up to two hundred twelve dollars and fifty-eight cents.
    “Arithmetic isn’t your long suit, is it?” he asked when she swore under her breath.
    “I can add. I wasn’t paying attention.” She dug out what she had, and was still eight dollars and twenty-two cents short. “Give me a break, will you?”
    He gave her a ten, then held out his hand for the change.
    “It’s less than two bucks.” She slapped the money into his hand, swung the bag over her free shoulder. “I’m busted.”
    “Then you should take more care with how you spend what you have. Mind you take the eight and twenty-two off what I owe you for the earbobs. I’ll spring for the taxi.”
    “You’re a real sport, Slick.”
    “If you want to be kept by a man, you’ll have to look elsewhere. I’m sure you’d have no problem finding one.”
    She said nothing to that. Could say nothing over the ball that lodged in her throat. Instead, with him gripping her arm, she marched to the curb and shot out a hand for a cab.
    “I’ll apologize for that.”
    “Shut up,” she managed. “Just shut up. We both know what you think of me, so just drop it.”
    When her head was clear again, she’d thank whatever god of the despairing had a free cab veering to the curb at her feet. She climbed in, snapped out Tia’s address.
    “You don’t know what I think of you. And neither do I.”
    He let that be the last of it during the ride.
    She’d have walked straight into her temporary bedroom when they entered the apartment, but Gideon stopped her. “Let’s see the statue first.”
    “You want to see it.” She shoved her purse into his stomach hard enough to knock the breath out of him. “Go ahead.”
    She made it halfway across the room when she stopped dead.
    “Look, Cleo—”
    She held up a hand, shook her head frantically. His stomach, already suffering, took a fast dive as he imagined her weeping. But when she turned, her wide, foolish grin had him narrowing his eyes.
    “Quiet!” She hissed it out in a whisper,