We were treading dangerous waters, and thus a change of subject was in order. I pushed the door open and stepped out of the car, and without question, she followed.
“So, what’s the reason your informant couldn’t give you this information over the phone or even a goddamn text?”
She pushed away from my car and headed toward the entrance of the building. I fell into stride with her smaller steps and waited impatiently for the answer she was dragging out for no good reason.
“Eva?” I gently tugged on her arm.
“He said he’d only give me what I needed in person. I didn’t want to come here alone, so I called you.” She looked me up, head to toe. “If anything, one look at you, and he would probably be less inclined to try something.”
I threw my hands up. “You knowingly agreed to come here, even though you knew this guy was shady? What if I’d said no?”
“This isn’t just about Rayne.”
She broke my hold on her arm and began walking again. But I caught her and whirled her around.
“What else is worth risking your safety?”
I wasn’t just going to let her walk into dangerous situations willingly, not until I’d had my fill.
“James had ties to Belov. What if he was the one who ordered the hit? Rayne is the key to Yuri and Dmitry.” Her eyes became misty. I gritted my teeth, hating that she had such an emotional attachment to that sack of shit, James. “I need to find her. I need her to talk. For her to tell me what she knows.”
Releasing her, I folded my arms across my chest.
“Don’t you have a whole department that can handle this?”
“Rayne is off the books. We have nothing solid on the Belov brothers that would stick. Trust me; we’ve tried.”
Eva pulled open a rickety gate, and I followed her down a gravel pathway.
“What makes you think that whatever information this girl has would hold up? No offense, Eva; she’s an addict and a prostitute.”
She cast a sharp glance at me and quickened her steps. “I know that. But maybe… this is for me.”
“Stop.” My tone was biting, making her halt at the authority behind it. “What did you just say?”
Eva bit her lip, her eyes flickering with what I could only deduce to be fear for just a fraction of a second before she squared her shoulders.
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“I can’t if you don’t tell me. What is this? Some revenge plot?” I chuckled humorlessly. “Your little friend tells you what you want to hear, and then, what? You go guns blazing into the Belov estate?” I gave her petite figure a once-over and shook my head. “That’s rich.”
She clenched her jaw and spun on her heels.
“Eva.”
The edge in my voice hadn’t worked this time.
“Fuck you,” she spat back, continuing her hard steps down the uneven path.
I was a son of a bitch, so there was no surprise that as she stomped off angrily, insulted by my words and insinuations of her capabilities, all I could do was watch her sweet ass and fantasize about how much I wanted to sink my teeth into each cheek and taste her from end to end.
Just as I took off after her, a blacked-out glass door swung open, and a tall, Skeletor-looking motherfucker stepped in front of Eva. She moved back a step, allowing him a wider berth.
“Are you Eva?” he asked with a smile that was a little too happy for my liking.
“I am,” she replied as I flanked her.
“I wasn’t aware you were arriving with… company.”
