“I could see she does. Which is why I thought I’d better see if it was going to cause me any trouble.” He smiled. “I detest trouble. Are you going to be a problem?”

“I might be.” She looked down into her tea. “I hope not. I don’t want to be. It depends on what you decide to do. What did Kaskov tell you?”

“It was very cut-and-dried. Only a brief description of what must have been a terrible time for you,” he said quietly. “I have no intention of using it to hurt you in any way. I wasn’t looking for anything like this. I just wanted to find a way to handle you. I don’t think I could hurt you if I wanted to. I can see you’ve put it behind you, and it’s only made you stronger.”

“Yes, it has.” She smiled bitterly. “No one can use that nightmare against me ever again. Even though I’m still living through the aftereffects from Volkov.” She lifted her cup to her lips. “Cut-and-dried,” she repeated. “It wasn’t cut-and-dried to me. And you might not want to use this to hurt me, but you’re still trying to manipulate me or you wouldn’t have brought it up. You’d have politely ignored that you knew about my deep, dark past.”

“Very true. Though your past isn’t dark, it’s very deep, and it’s created a woman who could still throw my plans into a hellish mess. I have to know you. And the reason I wasn’t discreetly polite is that I thought you could take anything I threw at you. But I still have to find a way to know exactly how you think, and I thought this would break the ice.”

She looked at him and started to laugh. “That’s one way of putting it. You’re…unusual, Tanner. I don’t believe I’ve ever met anyone like you.” She took a sip of her tea and then leaned back in her chair. She said bluntly, “I need to know you, too. You might be important to Lara. So let’s put all the cards on the table. I’ll go first, and it won’t be cut-and-dried. I was born in London. My parents were poor and hardworking and did their best to give me a good life, send me to church on Sunday, and teach me all the things decent parents teach their kids. But by the time I was eighteen, I thought I knew everything and only wanted to have a good time. Well, one night I was out at a club and the boy I was with slipped me a mickey. The next morning I woke up chained in a cellar with a dozen other girls and found out that boy was a supplier for sex traffickers. I was raped every night while I was there, but then they decided I was special and sent me to one of their cribs in Istanbul for special training. They turned me over to Madam Alya. She told me I had great potential and if I applied myself, I would not be hurt. Since they kept me drugged most of the time, I was a very willing student. I learned to perform so well I can’t tell you how much in demand I was. Everyone wanted Maria.” She took another drink of tea. “Are you bored yet?”