“I’m such an idiot!” Nicole cried. “I totally saw it coming. His little cue to his buddy. The ‘Oh, have you seen the big building?’ as he led you away. I knew it, and I still let it happen.” She dropped backward onto the bed. “I tried to get away, but he was holding on. And then he kissed me! The pig kissed me right on the lips. Ugh. He tasted like whisky and breath mints.”

“That sounds like a country song.”

Nicole popped her head up and saw her friend giving her a sympathetic smile. She laughed. “Yeah, I guess it does. Oh, Alicia, I’m so sorry. I’ve totally screwed this up.”

Alicia laid back on the bed next to her. “How did you screw anything up?”

“I pushed the jerk into a bunch of chairs, and he went down hard. Probably gave him a concussion.”

“I caught the last part of the show as he was on his way down. It looked pretty funny to me.”

Nicole laughed again. “I guess it was in an I can’t believe what I just did sort of way. One minute he’s Oh, I can give you the world, and the next his boat shoes are flying into the pool. But there’s no way he’s buying any of your paintings now. Two sales down the drain. That’s real money.”

Nicole’s disappointment was much deeper, though. Saad Salim was on the bad guys list. He provided funding to terrorist organizations and was involved in the acquisition and distribution of weapons. His was one boat Nir had really wanted to load up with explosives in case there came a time they were needed.

“You’re right. You should have just slept with him. That would have guaranteed the sale.”

Nicole sat up. “What?”

Alicia followed suit. “That’s what you just said. Because you rejected his advances, I lost a sale. The implication is that I would rather have had you sleep with him so I could off-load some paintings.”

“I don’t see the connection,” Nicole said, although it was becoming clearer to her as she thought about it.

“You know, I think this technically makes me your pimp. Good to know I have career options in case this whole artist thing doesn’t work out.”

Nicole laughed and swatted Alicia on the arm. “Stop it. You’ve made your point.”

“I’m just happy you’re okay. And I’m sorry our plan to sell my art has put you in a situation like this.”

“I knew what I was getting into. Besides, you had to deal with Arash. Notice we never got a last name? There’s something creepy about that guy. I just haven’t figured out what it is yet.” She flopped back onto the bed. “Mind if I sleep in here tonight?”