“You done daydreaming over there, staring into space?”
You can’t actually expect me to be sitting here listening to this sham of a briefing, can you?
I didn’t reply. His condescending question didn’t warrant one. Even though he was my supervisor, I’d learned the hard way to never, ever back down. I wouldn’t be a rebel and defy him, but dammit, I’d earn my respect here if it was the last thing I did. I was short and petite, but I wasnota pushover or weakling.
“What’s going on with your case?” He crossed his thick arms, muscled from protein shakes and steroids and time at the gym, not actual combat.
“I’m getting closer to arresting one of the Dubinins?—”
“Closer?” Davis, now seated instead of standing up at the front with Hufford, laughed cruelly. “You’re gettingcloser? I thought I heard that he threw you off course and sent you to Alaska while he flew home.”
I pressed my lips together, refusing to show him any anger or frustration.
“You wanna get close to one of the Dubinins,” Jeffries said with a sleazy expression as he stared at my chest, “all you gotta do is put someworkinto it. Shouldn’t be too hard with a rack like that.”
Hufford’s reaction to the blatant sexism was to roll his eyes.
I didn’t react. I refused to. They could all act like morons and be dicks. I’d have the last word when I showed up with Emil Dubinin in custody. As soon as that was done, I’d go after another thug. Then another.
Ignore them all. Focus.
“That’s not a bad idea,” Davis said, joining in with Jeffries’ line of suggestion. “Use what you got.”
“You can practice on me,” another agent near the back of the room said.
More laughter followed.
As the only woman in the room, I wasn’t counting on support.
“Yeah. If you wanna practice seducing a man, I’ll volunteer as tribute,” another said.
I maintained eye contact with Hufford while they all had their fun teasing me.
“Do I need to reassign this case to someone else?” our supervisor asked.
“No.” I furrowed my brow, irked that he’d be this pushy about it. I worked and researched and stalked and spied. Stakeouts were my life now. He couldn’t seriously be considering removing me from this case because it was taking me a while. Arresting a member of the Dubinin Family would be challenging for any of the agents in this room. They were simply that protected, that secretive. That good at hiding from the law and getting away with whatever they wanted—like murders and thefts and corruption.
Emil Dubinin was the most mobile high-ranking member of the family, the son of thePakhan, Luka Dubinin. Because of how mobile Emil was, he was my best bet for a capture. It was just a matter of playing this game better than he could.
And I would. I would get him. I would win and bring him in.
“No?” Hufford asked, arching one bushy gray brow. His handlebar moustache turned down, almost hiding his frown, but I knew it was there. I felt the loathing and doubt in his stare.
“No. You have no need to remove me from this case. I am committed to capturing and questioning the targets we’ve identified as potential members of the new Obsidian Eye alliance that is supposed to form.”
Crime lords were wicked enough on their own. But if this new secret “club” of them formed, more crimes and evils would be expected to follow. Maybe even wars. They surely funded some, but we had to stop this group from creatingmorechaos in an organized effort.
“Then fine-tune your commitment to bringing that Dubinin in.” Hufford rolled his eyes, like I was a pathetic waste of his attention. “It’s been taking you long enough, hasn’t it?”
I nodded once, in the barest acknowledgement he deserved. Other agents had tried and failed to capture a high-ranking Dubinin before. Simply put, my boss was expecting me to pull off something others had dubbed impossible.
Not impossible. Just… tricky.
But nothing would ever stop me from trying to make the world a safer place. Not even an elusive and smart-ass assassin who thought he could sneak away from me.
I’m coming for you, Emil Dubinin. Just you watch.
3
