Read Online [JJ06] Quicksand by Gigi Pandian - Free Book Online Page B

didn’t think so. Sorry, Jones.”
    So that was his name. Under the circumstances, it had seemed strange to enquire.
    “ Merde ,” Marius muttered.
    “I was only joking,” Lane said. “Where’s your usual sense of humor?”
    “Not that.” Marius tilted his head toward a man who was approaching us.
    “Hugo?” Lane said.
    A wide-eyed, spectacled man walked toward us. When he came within a few yards of us, he nearly dropped the fedora he held in his hands.
    “ Je suis désolé ,” the newcomer said, his eyes darting between the three of us.
    “Hugo,” Marius said, his voice clipped. “What do you think you’re—”
    “I did not see you there, Marius.” The man’s voice shook, and his stance indicated he might turn and run at any moment. If this was one of Lane’s “associates,” he was clearly in the wrong business. 
    “Hugo must have confused the dates his services are required,” Marius said, shaking his head and keeping his eyes on Hugo. “There’s to be no discussion of future assignments until North has completed this current job.”
    “I merely wished to visit an old friend,” Hugo said, holding up his hands in a placating gesture. “There is no misunderstanding.”
    Lane was the only one of the three men who appeared calm. “It’s good to see you, my friend.” He shook Hugo’s hand. The juxtaposition between them was striking. Though they both had fair hair and looked around the same age, Hugo wasn’t much taller than I was, and he might have been even skinnier. I wondered if he was the little guy they used to fit through tiny windows.
    “This is Jaya,” Lane continued, ignoring a sharp glare from Marius. “Jaya, Hugo.”
    “ Enchanté, ” Hugo said. He gave me a warm smile and shook my hand. Unlike Lane’s other associates, I liked Hugo immediately. It’s a funny thing how people make snap judgments about one another. As surely as I’d known I didn’t want to go with the unpleasant man at the airport who North had sent to pick me up, I knew if this had been the right time and place, I’d want to be friends with Hugo. It wasn’t only because he was a fellow tiny person. It was the genuine warmth in his eyes.
    I felt all eyes on me and Hugo, including those in the Old Masters portraits surrounding us. Silence hung in the nearly empty gallery.
    Hugo broke the silence. “ Je suis désolé, mes amis. I should not have come.”
    “How did you find us?” Lane asked.
    “You changed your phone and email, my friend,” Hugo said. “This is the third time I’ve visited to the Louvre this week. I knew you would come.”
    Marius responded to Hugo in French. Three days of intensive French lessons weren’t enough to understand their terse words, but the intonation made it clear Marius was angry. Hugo spoke a few words in French, before switching back to English as he turned to me.
    “I have decided to retire, you see,” Hugo said. “I merely wished to see my old friend Lane before I did.”
    Marius crossed his arms. “Go ahead. Say your farewells.”
    “You’ll be leaving Paris?” Lane asked.
    “Perhaps,” Hugo said, glancing nervously at Marius before turning back to Lane. “I love my flat on Rue Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie. I would miss the way the light falls on my statue of Michelangelo’s Angel in the window if I were to leave.”  He had to be talking about a replica, didn’t he? “But when one wishes to cut ties...” He shrugged, causing his wire-rimmed glasses to slip down his slight nose.
    “I plan to leave Paris very soon,” Lane said. “Otherwise I’d suggest we meet in a few days. But as things are—”
    “Of course, of course.”
    While Hugo and Lane spoke for several minutes, with Marius watching them, I looked around at the paintings in the room. Lane had led us through much of the museum, but he hadn’t told me what it was he was supposed to steal. I turned back to the men. They hadn’t moved from their spot in front of the tiny