You Know Who I Am (The Drusilla Thorne Mysteries Book 2) by Diane Patterson

screaming about lawyers and million-dollar settlements. My mother, who had been insanely wealthy all her life and knew better than he did how to play this game, shook her head. He didn’t get a penny.
    However, a year later she married Patrick. The less said about him, the better. Jane always had to be with a man, which is how she ended up with so many terrible ones. I sincerely hoped Roberto had been a better husband than the first three had been. The best that can be said about them is that they taught me to be self-reliant.
    I counted backwards from a thousand to get a grip on myself. “Family reunion time is over. What is it you want, Roberto?”
    “As always, you are very efficient. All right then. You have quite a mess here in Los Angeles. We need the police to find whoever did this.”
    “And find the actual culprit?”
    “Exactly. Then, you need to come home to New York City. You have been a very busy girl for the last eleven years.”
    I wondered if he knew how busy.
    “My investigators have managed to trace you backward to Lucrezia Forni. Care to give me the names you had before that?”
    Lucrezia was my name when we lived in Firenze. That had been about five years ago.
    He knew how busy I’d been.
    “How did you find me?” I asked.
    He raised an eyebrow. “That doesn’t matter.”
    “Oh, it matters quite a lot. I vanished off the face of the earth eleven years ago and suddenly you know where I am.”
    “Perhaps it wasn’t suddenly.”
    “Given some of the situations I’ve been in over the past few years, you would have shown up a long time ago if that were true. For example, Lucrezia got into a scrape or two.”
    “Yes, she did. You know, if you needed money, you could have asked us for it. Instead of robbing our villa.”
    “Yes, but robbing the villa in Venice was more satisfying. Not to mention fun.” Actually, it hadn’t been either satisfying or fun. I’d done it as a way out of a bad situation I’d been in. But he didn’t need to know that.
    Roberto clapped his hands. “All right. Here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to move here, to the Peninsula, so we can keep an eye on you—”
    “No,” I said.
    “What?”
    “We have a place to stay,” I lied. “I’d rather stay there.”
    “That is not acceptable.”
    My turn to shrug.
    He smiled tightly. “After this murder investigation is dealt with, you will come home to New York. Yes, things will be a madhouse for a while.”
    “Madhouse? Roberto, are you aware that my father wants me dead?”
    He narrowed his eyebrows, as though he hadn’t the slightest idea what I might be referring to. Then he shook his head. “Stop being dramatic.”
    “I destroyed a billion-dollar deal. The man can hold a grudge. He sent one killer after us already.”
    “When?”
    I snorted. “Eleven years ago?”
    “What happened?”
    “I didn’t kill him, if that’s what you’re asking.”
    I did, however, let the man die. All I’m going to say is, it was him or me, and I’m extremely fond of me.
    “Just the one?”
    “Thank Hades I had proper training in how to hide. We’ve stayed hidden for eleven years to avoid him.”
    “You will be safe. We can protect you.”
    I nodded, as though everything he were saying made sense. I had a somewhat different take on it. “So where would Stevie and I go when we’re in New York?”
    And Roberto did the worst thing a negotiator can do: he hesitated.
    How on earth could he not have had an answer for that question ready? I was reminded immediately of some of the best advice I’d ever heard on the subject of discussing difficult subjects, and what do you know? It came from none other than Roberto Montesinos. Always tell the truth if you can, he told me. If you can’t tell the whole truth, tell as much of it as you can. If you can’t tell the truth at all, say what you’d like to do. And if you can’t say that much, keep your mouth closed.
    Roberto had his mouth firmly closed.
    “Oh my