Amy was on him about that. She wanted him to invest the cash and make it grow. She did not accept the reality of their situation. The old adage was true—the FBI caught virtually every thief by following the money. Before renting their apartment, he had driven to Miami and laundered seventy grand through low-level drug dealers. He had met a pal of the dealers while slumming in Modesto. He got only seventy cents on the dollar. At least he was confident the guys had nothing to do with the authorities. They treated their Uzis like pets. They dabbed their runny noses and offered him white sugar that could not be used in mother’s cookie recipe. But they liked him, they thought he was a cool guy.

He did not like dealing with such lowlives. He needed to find a connection to unload the whole sum—the diamonds and the cash. But Mexico was hot with FBI, and the guys he would meet farther south would be too scary. He thought of going to Europe. Amy understood none of these things, or if she did she didn’t care. He had to watch his own back around her. It was not a good feeling.

Jimmy woke up. Amy fed him, they went for a walk, Jimmy slept some more, they made love. Another idyllic afternoon until she dressed to leave. It was then Matt asked about the divorce, and Amy casually dropped a bombshell.

“David said he’ll see me dead before he divorces me,” she said.

Matt sat up sharply. “I thought you said he couldn’t stand the sight of you?”

“I guess he changed his mind.”

“Did you do anything to make him change his mind?”

That annoyed her. “You mean, did I fuck him?”

“Yeah. Did you?”

She turned away, hurt. “You’re never going to forgive me.”

They’d had this discussion before. He always ended up explaining there was a difference between forgiveness and forgetting. The trouble was, he wasn’t sure what it was. He got to his feet and embraced her from behind.

“I’m sorry,” he said. One day she would cut off his dick and he would apologize. She used guilt as easily as she breathed. But it was not as if he was whipped. At least, that’s what he told himself. She turned and buried her face in his chest.

“He’ll never leave us in peace,” she said.

Matt sighed. “I’m beginning to think that.”

She looked up at him. “You never told me why you decided to kidnap Jimmy to get back at me. Why didn’t you just kill me?”

“Killing someone is not the worst revenge. They’re simply dead, they don’t feel anything.”

“But you must have thought of killing me?”

He hesitated. “True.”

“How would you have done it?”

“Is this what they call a hypothetical question?”

“Tell me, how did you think of doing it?”