Page 112 of Gone Before Goodbye

“Yes. I thought I would find answers there.”

“And did you?”

“No, not really. I searched Oleg’s computers and files. I don’t think he had anything to do with Marc or Trace. So I kept asking myself: If Oleg isn’t behind all this, who else could it be?”

Maggie makes a face. “And the answer was me?”

“I couldn’t forget Trace’s face getting on that plane. He was so shaken. Scared, even. I’d never seen him like that. Don’t you see howit looked? Trace gets a call. He’s upset. He drops everything and flies to you and then, poof, no one ever sees him again.”

Nadia gives Maggie a challenging look. Maggie shakes it off.

“I had nothing to do with that,” Maggie says. “Trace is my friend. We were in combat together.”

Nadia’s eyes continue to bore into hers. “I just want to find the man I love. You can understand that, can’t you?”

“Of course.”

“So now I’m in Russia, with Oleg. I’m learning about how he had his hand in all these medical charities. But I’m getting nowhere with my original mission.”

“Finding Trace.”

“Yes. But I’m starting to wonder what you’re hiding.”

“I’m not hiding anything.”

“Meanwhile Oleg, he keeps saying how he loves me, but I’m too skinny. When a man says you’re too skinny, well, you know…”

Maggie knows. They both know. Most women know.

“So Oleg, he was already looking into finding a discreet surgeon for some plastic surgery of his own. When I heard that, I suggested that at the same time, hey, I could get bigger boobs. He loved the idea.”

“Big surprise,” Maggie says.

The two women share a knowing smile. Men. They don’t change much.

“So now I put myself in charge of finding the surgeon.”

“And you made sure that I got selected?”

“Yes.”

“So you could get me to Oleg’s weird palace and hope, what, I’d crack?”

“Yes,” Nadia says. Simple as that. “I’d control the environment. You’d be isolated, out of your element, off-balance. I wanted to confuse you, make you question everything. The tattoo was a big part of that. By the way, I saw the tattoo on Marc in a pool here in Dubai. Heand Trace told me the story about how he got it in college. I had other things planned for you, and if they didn’t work, I planned on directly confronting you—like I am now.”

“You had other things planned?”

“Yes.”

“More head games?”

“Yes. You were supposed to stay longer. Your first demand was two weeks.”

Maggie remembers. “So what went wrong, Nadia? Why was everyone suddenly in a panic after the operations?”

“I don’t know. But it had something to do with Oleg.”

“What?”