“It wouldn’t be untoward attention, though. In fact, maybe it would help. You’d be hiding in plain sight that way.”
“No. Absolutely not. This isn’t fuckingDexter. I’ll handle it myself.”
“Dexter also handled it himself and his wife ended up bleeding out in a bathtub,” Soren pointed out.
“Good thing I’m not married. Though, considering you’re the last person I fucked, maybe you should be on your way.”
“Think I’ll just avoid bathtubs.” Soren flashed a smile. “You really want me out of here, huh? You know what I think? I think you liked what went down between us too much. I think it challenged your sense of control and that makes you uncomfortable.”
Tobias stared at him a long moment before snapping his gaze away. “I think you should stick to killing people because analyzing them is clearly not your forte.” He drew his finger through a pool of blood on Janice’s desk. “More pressing is the question of whose blood this is?”
“Nice diversion. Likely animal blood.” Soren rubbed the back of his neck. That was his best guess simply due to the amount. But something else was troubling him. “Something like this is typically a warning. But you’ve already got a mark on your head. Killeen’s people won’t mess around with a warning. They’re just gonna put a bullet through your skull if they want you dead. Anyone else you might’ve pissed off?”
“I piss people off on a daily basis.”
“I believe that.”
Tobias’s resulting scowl shouldn’t have made Soren want to take the guy apart again, but it did.
They got started cleaning up the office until one of Ronin’s crews arrived to take care of the rest. Touching base with him and Cas revealed nothing on the security cameras, which didn’t surprise Soren in the least. Something was afoot, but he sure as shit wasn’t smart enough to figure it out.
Back in the parking garage, he halted the doc at a distance from his Volvo. “You got a remote start on that fancy thing? Of course, you do,” he answered his own question and nodded toward the fob in the doctor’s hand. “Start it up.”
“Explosives?” Tobias arched an amused brow.
“Could be.” Soren shrugged. “Sometimes, vandalization like that is a diversionary tactic.” That didn’t make a lot of sense to him, though. Still, he might as well cover all the bases.
Sure enough, nothing happened when Tobias clicked the button except the SUV started up with a rumbling purr of well-kept machinery. Soren raked a hand through his hair and made Tobias stay where he was while he walked around and scrutinized the vehicle, going so far as to get down on the ground and check out the undercarriage.
“Are you going to be doing something similar when we get back to my house?” Tobias asked as they slid into the car together.
“Most likely.” Soren checked the interior of the car. It looked exactly as they left it. “Something’s bothering me, but I can’t fucking place it, and that drives me even crazier.”
Tobias’s lips split in a triumphant grin. “Now, we’re getting somewhere. You realize that’s gut instinct?”
Soren gave him a flat stare. “Yeah.”
“Gut instinct is usually triggered by multiple minute aberrations to a familiar pattern that the subconscious picks up on.”
“Do you feel it, too?”
“Yes, but probably not as strongly as you because this is your field. I’d be more likely to know instinctively when someone is about to snap because I deal with delicate patients constantly. And then there’s the baseline human instincts that we’re all born with. The things that make us pull back from the edge of a cliff or make our stomach tickle enough that we turn away from one street and go down another without ever consciously knowing why.”
“So, you trust me when I tell you something’s wrong?” Soren’s surprise bled through his tone.
Tobias put the car into gear as he nodded. “I do, but I don’t know what it is, either.”
“You trust me to try to help figure it out?”
“I think I’ll have to at this point. I still enjoy being alive, after all.” Tobias exhaled a long sigh, glancing at Soren before he gave a single sharp nod. “More or less.”
13
Tobias
“You’re being unreasonable, Toby.”
Fucking Toby… AlwaysToby. Or Glasses. Or Doc. Never Tobias. Why did it get under his skin so much? Why didSoren—only Soren with his lackadaisical attitude towards everything—get under his skin? He could feel Soren watching him.
