I haven’t slept because Calder kept calling, needing help with grabbing a Nozares rat for interrogation. I glance at my bloody jeans, then take in what’s left of the bastard tied to the chair. Can barely make out a person anymore.
“Fuck, Alexei,” Calder mutters, flicking blood off his fingers. “I told you to stop an hour ago. Look at him. He won’t be able to tell us anything now.”
“I don’t think this one had any information anyway.”
I took my frustration out on him. Kelly was in my head, and my patience was already gone before this started.
Calder sighs beside me. “I had plans for him.”
A wheezy yap comes from the floor. Calder’s face lights up, and he bends down to pick up Tank, his ancient pug. No idea how it’s still breathing. Pure spite, probably.
The thing is enormous, missing most of its teeth, and waddles instead of walks. I reach out and scratch behind his ears before he snaps at my fingers with his gums. Calder drags him everywhere. Every interrogation, every cleanup, all of it.
“Go clean this up and text me if you get anything useful.”
He stares at me with those unsettling black eyes, Tank tucked under one arm. “Clean up your own goddamn mess. I didn’t turn this guy into hamburger, you did. Whole night’s been a bust. The last guy didn’t know shit either. Good thing Yulian dropped off some intel about their safe houses, or we’d have nothing.”
My eyes narrow.
Yulian always gets the best information about the Nozares family from his girls at the escort service, though I wonder how exactly his operation keeps stumbling across cartel intel. Seems convenient that wealthy men spill family secrets to his expensive whores, but who am I to question results?
“What kind of intel?” I ask.
“Locations, mostly. A few names. Nothing we couldn’t have gotten elsewhere, but it saves time.” He gestures at the corpse with his free hand. “Speaking of hamburgers, I’m starving. Feel like getting some food?”
My eyes flick to the body, then back to him. Food sounds good, but what I have in mind is way more satisfying. “I have other things I have to do.”
“Like what?”
“Like something that’s none of your business.”
His eyes narrow. “You’ve been doing a lot of things that require you to be away from here. Very unlike you.”
I grunt and pick up the knife from the floor, cleaning it off with a torn piece of fabric. He’s not wrong. I used to practically live in this basement, only going home to sleep when Calder kicked me out. Now I can’t get out of here fast enough.
I glance over at him. “Since when do you keep track of my schedule?”
“You’ve followed the same routine since the day I met you. Sleep here, work here, eat here. Like clockwork. Now you’re vanishing for days at a time. Not exactly subtle.” He examines me. “What’s got you so distracted?”
I shrug at him. “Nothing.”
He stares at me for another beat, then lets it go. “Fine.”
“Clean this up for me.” I gesture at the mess on the floor. “I’ll be back later when we have new orders.”
He shifts Tank to his other arm and nods.
“By the way, we’ve got some new people joining the crew. They need to get familiar with our weapon and cargo operations. My father wants security tightened before the next shipment.” I wipe blood off my hands with a rag. “I vetted them myself. They’re solid.”
Calder grunts. “More babysitting. Great.”
“What do you mean?”
He shrugs. “Everyone’s a pain in the ass right now. You’re acting strange, Yulian’s snapping at people for no reason, Mikhail’s more out of control than usual. I’m stuck cleaning up after all of you like I’m running a daycare for psychopaths.”
What’s got me acting weird? Nothing. Everything.
Knowing Kelly’s bed is waiting for me. The fact that I’m standing here covered in someone else’s blood instead of in his apartment. I slide the clean blade back into its sheath.
