“It saved my life,” Bennett said softly as she returned to her chair. “It was in the inside pocket of my coat, and if it hadn’t been, the metal rod that made that hole would have gone through my heart.”

Lisa’s eyes welled with tears. “Oh, God.”

“The fact that I’m sitting here proves the other injuries were inconsequential, but that one would have ended me when I fell into that trap.”

“Trap? What trap? Are you saying this was a…wait…what?”

“I was set up, Lisa. I was played, as they say. Led by the nose to an ambush, an ambush I didn’t see coming because my head had grown too large for my body.”

“Are you saying someone was trying to kill you?”

“Yes.”

“Who? Napoleon?”

“That would be my guess.”

“Okay, so now I need some cognac,” Lisa said, springing up from her chair.

“I could use more myself,” Bennett said before drinking down the rest of her coffee.

Lisa came back a few seconds later and poured another splash of Hennessy in both of their mugs. She returned to her chair and took a sip, a sip followed by a drawn-out breath. “All right, so I think you need to start from the beginning. What exactly happened last night?”

“After we parted ways, I went for a walk. I ended up down by the gallery, and that’s when I heard a woman’s cries. Um…more like whimpers, actually. They were faint, but it was clear she was in some sort of trouble, so I followed the sound, which was a mistake I didn’t see until it was too late.”

“What kind of mistake? It’s what you do.”

“Yes, but her cries were traveling, moving as I moved, and leading me to a building down by the river. I was so absorbed in gallantly trying to save someone in peril, I turned a blind eye to it. I pushed it aside with all my superciliousness because I was riding on the fumes of my own legend.”

“What do you mean?”

“I know during your training, your father told you about me, so when we met twelve years ago, did I live up to your expectations?”

“Um…well…”

Bennett chuckled. “Just be honest, Lisa. Trust me, this is going somewhere.”

“Okay, then no, you didn’t,” Lisa said with a shrug. “I mean, before that night, the last time I’d seen you was when we were living in Germany, and I was only two, so I didn’t remember much about you. So, yeah, it was kind of hard to believe from what Dad told me about you, you were the same person who stepped off that plane. You weren’t larger than life. You weren’t…threatening.”