Champagne Brunch: The Stiletto Sisters Series by Ainsley Claire (easy readers .txt) 📗

we can finally start. I appreciate your patience.” She smiles like a big, fat Cheshire cat.

I take a deep breath. I’m not sure anything I do can throw her off, but then again, she didn’t grow up with my mother. I’m ready to deploy the reverse interview techniques I encountered growing up with a strong mom in the Couture household.

I look her in the eyes. “Tell me, how long have you worked for Viviana Prentis?”

AUSA Lindsey turns to me with the same look he might have if I stripped off my suit and shook the girls at the table. Horror. I ignore him. He’s hardly said two words to me, and thankfully Marci has done most of the prep for today. Sure, you could argue he’s from Portland and doesn’t know Tatyana Turgeneva, but he did nothing to ready me for this interview. I may be going a little off script, but you don’t get where I am by being unsure and meek.

Tatyana’s eyes widen. She was expecting me to be complacent. I’m sure Viviana has fed her every single one of my insecurities. But Viviana always underestimated me. That’s why I win at poker, why my company has hit nineteen on the Forbes Fortune 50 list, and why I’m the youngest female CEO in the top 500. Tatyana needs to know this is only round one with me.

“I’m not sure exactly.” She smiles, but without teeth or her eyes.

“Would it be before she killed Cecelia Lancaster? Or while she was hopping around the world, evading the police and lying to all her friends? Maybe it was after she was stupid enough to think she could get to Nate Lancaster in his home and made a lame attempt to kill him?”

“I see someone isn’t happy about being here,” she teases.

But she doesn’t answer my question. Marci told me she’s a second-generation Russian mob lawyer, and most likely she was working for Viviana long before she killed Cecelia.

“I figure all your stalling techniques were designed to ratchet up my anxiety because Viviana told you I get anxious.” I smile as she gives me a smirk. I’m on the right track. “But Viviana always failed to realize all that I’ve accomplished. Also, I’m very good at reading people. So, let’s cut this pretense that you’re an airhead and want to disarm me with your false charm. Ask your questions you already have the answers to, and let’s get this over with.”

She sits back in her chair. “I figured Viviana might have been swayed by her devotion to her friend.”

I look at her with disgust. Viviana was no devoted friend. “Let’s get started. We agreed we’d go until one, and I have lunch plans today. You fucked around for over ninety minutes, wasting our time as part of a power play, so you’d better get going.” I look dramatically at my watch—the watch Nate Lancaster gave me at the last poker tournament. “You’ve got two hours and twenty-three minutes.”

Tatyana looks at Lindsey. “You know I can have a judge compel her to stay here for hours.”

Marci clears her throat. “Maybe, but I think you overplayed your hand with Ms. Couture. We were prepared for your antics, and I have a statement from eight other witnesses about how you dick around and waste hours with mindless talking and conversation to ask a half dozen vital questions. I think the judge will rule in our favor, so I suggest you start with those before Ms. Couture leaves.”

Lindsey stares at Marci and Tatyana like it’s a tennis match. He’s out of his league on this, and right now it’s painfully obvious.

“We’ll see.” Tatyana returns her palms to the table. “How did you meet Viviana Prentis?” she asks.

“We met about eight years ago. We’d both been part of a round of investments by Sullivan Healy Newsom—SHN.”

Tatyana raises her eyebrows. “That’s it?” she asks.

“I answered your question,” I reply. “What more are you looking for?”

“Did you hit it off?”

“I guess. I don’t recall if we exchanged contact information.”

“You didn’t go out after SHN’s circus party?”

I suppress an eye roll. It wasn’t a circus. It was a company summer picnic with carnival performers. “I don’t recall whether she was there that evening. There were probably two dozen people at the place I went after the SHN event.” I shrug.

“You don’t recall having a conversation with Viviana about your plans and your data-mining algorithm?” she asks.

I purse my lips. “I don’t. I’m sure at some point I told her about it, but I can’t recall exactly when.”

“Would it surprise you to know that Viviana was a meticulous journaler, and she wrote down all her notes about who she talked to and what they talked about?”

My lips quirk. “I would be surprised that it was a journal and not a report to her KGB superiors.”

AUSA Lindsey struggles to swallow a sip of coffee as he coughs and sputters.

Tatyana’s mask slips for a moment. I’m sure they’re recopying Viviana’s reports over to journals so they can be admitted as evidence.

“Do you recall that you told her about your plans to sell the information you collect to the highest bidder?”

That catches me off guard, but I touch my watch and control my emotions. “I know for a fact that I never told her anything of the sort.”

“Can you be sure?” she challenges.

“Without a doubt, because that’s not what I do, and in fact, it would be impossible.” I stare at her, daring her to argue. If she takes this to court, she’ll look like an idiot.

She tilts her head to the side. “But your customers run searches that target marketing and information for them, yes?”

“Actually, it’s a basic command. If you search online for pink dresses, you drop a cookie. When you go to other websites, you carry that