Shrugging, I closed my door. “Don’t know. If I have it my way he’ll stay mine.”
The front doors glinted with sun as I headed toward them. I yanked one open and held it for Slater, who gave me a curt nod on the way through. I followed him, pausing at the sight of Bodhi with his head down. Whenever we came back he always raised his head and grinned a hello, but not this time, which was odd.
“You okay there, mate?” I moved closer to the desk, which had a high back I could lean on and peer over.
Bodhi raised his hard gaze, unusual for the lighthearted man I was used to. The teasing glint that was a constant in those brown eyes was gone and his mouth was pressed in a thin line. He shuffled some papers on his desk and then passed Slater a piece of paper from a notepad. “Those are your messages for the day, sir. We have a few new clients who are hoping you’ll take their cases.”
Slater glanced down at the note, frowning. He hummed as he perused the names and messages. “Thank you, Bodhi.”
I leaned closer to our receptionist. “You okay?” I repeated, not liking the neutral tone in his voice. Bodhi was the epitome of excitable. I’d never seen him without a smile on his face.
“I’m fine, thank you,” he snapped.
Slater obviously didn’t believe him, either, because he nudged me on the hip where Bodhi couldn’t see and raised his eyebrows.
“Conrad is in the meeting room if you’re looking for him.” Bodhi stood abruptly and switched off the lamp on his desk. “It’s five thirty, so I’m going to leave now.”
I hadn’t even realized the time, and my gaze flicked to the clock on the white wall behind him. Even though he technically finished at half past five, I’d never known Bodhi to leave before us. Normally he wanted to know everything about our day, what had happened and what we’d discovered on our cases. But this time he swept past us and closed the door a little too hard, the bells hanging from the frame jangling angrily. He locked it before he was gone like a fart in the wind.
“What happened there?” I asked, stunned.
Slater shook his head and walked down the hallway to the meeting room. I followed him, and we stepped through the door to find Conrad sitting on one of the leather chairs, the Russian woman perched on the edge of the sturdy mahogany table in front of him. She was giggling at something he said, and his brown eyes were sparkling with his wide grin. It wasn’t hard to discern flirting, and that’s exactly what Conrad and the lady were doing, especially with the way her hand touched his shoulder. The skirt of her dress was short, barely making the middle of her thighs, and all she’d have to do was spread them a little and he’d get a show I suspected he’d like.
Slater cleared his throat and Conrad startled, swinging the chair around to look at us. He stood, still smiling, and raised his hand. His tie was loose, hanging off his neck like a man who didn’t value his appearance, and I didn’t miss the way his belt was unbuckled, either.
“Hey, you’re back.”
“Want to tell me what this is?” Slater asked seriously, gesturing between the Russian woman and Conrad.
Conrad didn’t even hide the stupid look he got on his face as he glanced at her. “This is Nadia. You know, seeing as you didn’t get her name.”
I rolled my eyes. Her name wasn’t exactly top on our priority list, and that’s what Conrad had been for. We put her in his care thinking he’d find out more information eventually, not that we thought she knew much else.
“Did she tell you that?” Slater snorted and strode over to the table, slamming his backpack onto it.
“I speak a bit of Russian. Not much. Some.” Conrad touched Nadia’s arm, and she blinked at us from beneath deep, smoky eyeshadow. “Knew a guy from Ukraine who knew some Russian.”
I shook my head. “We don’t care, Conrad. You and her got a thing going? Because we’re shipping her back to Russia.”
Conrad fixed his tie, as though that would make us change our mind over what had obviously happened. I was guessing some serious hands-on action. “We’re not border patrol. We can’t force her to go home.”
“You’re right, but she will go home unless she wants us to hand her in to O’Neill,” Slater said, straightening. His eyes were lit with an anger I hadn’t seen in a long time from him, but I was sure Conrad was used to it. They were partners before Slater and I did our stint in a black-and-white together, before he was forced to quit.
Conrad stepped closer, clenching his teeth. “We’re not going to blackmail her to leave.”
“Why? Because you’re fucking her?” Slater laughed. “I don’t care if you’re in a full-blown relationship with her. Her father’s company is involved in human trafficking, whether she knew it or not. She’s going home.”
“Isn’t this something we should discuss?”
I sighed. Conrad and Slater were both hotheads and I knew what was coming. Soon fists would get involved if they weren’t careful, and we couldn’t afford that kind of animosity in the company. I didn’t think Slater would risk something he’d worked hard to build, but Conrad did have a way of getting on people’s nerves, even mine.
I stepped in between them and raised my palms to their chests. “Enough.”
“I won’t let him send Nadia back, Paxton,” Conrad hissed, pressing against my hand as he stepped closer.
“That choice is hers because while he can’t send her back, mate, hecanhand in evidence to the police about her father’s company. We don’t even know if the father had any idea or not. If I was a betting bloke, I’d say he does, whether Nadia knows or not. Don’t you think she should have the chance to save her father and their company?”
Conrad opened his mouth and then closed it, jaw tense. He stepped back, mouth thin as he spun on his heel away from us. He walked closer to Nadia, who’d stood at some point, clearly uncertain on what was happening. From the way she was frowning at him as he spoke in stilted Russian, it was clear he wasn’t fluent but at least spoke enough for her to understand. Her mouth dropped open as her gaze jumped to us, and she spoke so fast that it had Slater frowning at me.
