Page 56 of Sinner's Secret

“Hey, you miss a lot when you blink.”

“Ha, ha,” she said dryly. “I’ve got a headache and I’m really tired, but that’s about it.”

“Sleep would be the best thing for you,” Baz said as neutrally as he could.

“Hard pass,” she said turning back around and giving him the expression all women showed a man who’d suggested something stupid. “We need to figure out our next steps and I need to let my partner know I’m okay.”

Baz opened his mouth to argue, but she added, “Just him.”

Baz didn’t like it, but if she had to tell anyone, Smith was the best option. He’d stopped acting like an ass after Baz had saved his life. Seemed to see the man behind the Slavic last name.

“Have you got a way to do that without giving him any idea where you are?” Baz asked.

“I could call the diner, have one of the other waitresses give him a message.”

Baz shrugged. “I’m curious about this buyer that creep said wants you.”

“Bullshit,” she said. “You’re not curious, you want to kill him.”

Baz couldn’t help laughing. “That would be my first choice, yes, but then you’d put me in jail, and I hate jail.”

“Have you ever been in an American jail?”

“No, but I imagine they have many things in common with jails in other countries. The food is always so...bland.”

“What? They don’t accommodate your special diet?”

“No, and they frown on your family bringing you cakes or cookies or even virgin sacrifices. It’s very inconvenient.”

“So, killing is off the table?” she asked, her tone jovial, but there was something serious in her gaze.

He held up a hand. “I swear to keep murder as a last resort.”

She tilted her head to one side. “Sometimes I think you’re incredibly strange, and other times I think you’re the smartest man I’ve ever met.”

“Can I have that in writing? My cousin will never believe anyone said it without proof.” He tried to keep up the joking atmosphere, but her expression didn’t change.

“Did you really kill those six men with your bare hands?” she asked in a whisper. “Was it a last resort?”

He knew this moment was coming, her finally realizing just how big a monster he was, but it still slapped him with a cold brutal hand. “I didn’t want to kill anyone,” he said slowly. “But I knew when I went in there, that the only way I was getting out with you was going to require extreme measures.”

“Why did you come for me? Alone and...did you have a gun?”

“No, I don’t like them. It’s too easy to kill with them.”

She stared at him like he’d spoken in a foreign language. “You came alone, without a weapon, and still did...what you did?”

“Yes,”

He could see it clearly in her eyes now, the understanding, and horror.

“Why?” she threw the question at him.

It wasn’t the question he’d expected, and it hit him with a sucker punch between the eyes. “Because what they did was wrong.” It came out in a shout, and he could tell from the disgust on her face that raising his voice had not been a good idea.

“Wrong?” she asked, her tone flat. “Wrong?” Now it was a demand. “You risked your life against at least six armed men—because there had to be more, someone was driving the truck—on a principle?”

Holy shit, she wasn’t disgusted, she was angry. With him. And she wasn’t done.

---