Page 59 of Sinner's Secret

“No,” Baz said slowly. “I don’t think she did. Women have been getting snatched off the streets of New York for a while now. The cops tried to get someone into this human trafficking ring in more than one way, but both of them failed.”

“No one tried to kill me until you stopped them from grabbing her,” Yvgeny said, giving her another scathing glance.

“Did you start asking questions and make it clear to your people that slavery would not be tolerated in the city?” Baz asked.

“I did,” Yvgeny said with a sigh.

Nika examined Yvgeny again. “You were fine until you took steps to get in their way. Whoever they are.”

“There’s another problem,” Yvgeny said to Baz. “Your friend Joe, who owns the pub, he’s missing. According to a drunk, the Men in Black took him.”

All three of them looked at each other with similar expressions of confusion on their faces.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Nika said. “They’ve been taking women.”

“Are we sure they haven’t been taking men?” Baz asked. “Your investigation was concentrated on women because of missing prostitutes and that student who was studying them.”

“I could look through the missing persons reports,” Nika said. “Maybe there’s a pattern—”

“No,” both men said at the same time.

Baz looked at Yvgeny in surprise. “I won’t let anyone hurt her. Not again.” She was his to care for. “Why are you acting so protective?”

Yvgeny’s gaze was sharp, his smile even sharper. “Because she matters to you, and no one has mattered to you this much since...they died.”

“You care about her because you care about me?” Baz asked in disbelief. His cousin had barely tolerated him for a very long time.

Yvgeny’s eyes lit up and he said, with something approaching glee, “Surprise.”

Nika covered her eyes with one hand. “Oh my God, you two are definitely related.”

Baz poked his cousin’s chest with one offended index finger. “You’ve let me stew in alcohol, poverty, and pain for years. Why step up now to help me?”

“Bazyli,” Yvgeny sounded sad and tired. “You were bound and determined to punish yourself for something you had no control over.”

“That is a lie,” Baz said shoving Yvgeny back with one hand. “It was my greed for money and power that got them killed. I turned them into targets, then wandered off to play Knights of the Round table.” He turned away to rub his hands over his face. “I was an idiot.”

“You’re still an idiot,” Nika told him in a dry tone. “Remember?”

Yvgeny looked at Nika, really looked at her. “I think...” he said slowly. “I like you.”

Baz had his cousin up against the door, his arm pressing against his throat and instant later. “Stay away from her.” His voice was so low, so full of gravel it didn’t even sound human.

Yvgeny lifted his hands so they were up against the wall, then wiggled his fingers to show he wasn’t struggling or trying to stop Baz. “I only like her because I think she is good for you. She doesn’t take your shit.”

The red haze that had colored his vision and response, faded. He let Yvgeny go and only then realized that he’d been holding the man up against the wall, and a few inches off the floor.

“Are you two done with the posturing?” Nika asked. “We need to figure out what’s going on.”

“She is correct,” Yvgeny said.

Baz stepped back from his cousin until he was standing next to Nika. He kept his hands to himself, but it soothed him to have her closer to him. That she stayed there and didn’t try to move away, soothed him even more.

“I want to bring my partner in,” Nika said. “Quietly, in a way that won’t attract attention. Trying to go through a waitress at the diner will take too long.” She gave Yvgeny a level look. “Do you have someone who works for you who might realistically claim to be a police informant?”

“Someone who could give your partner a message?”

“Yes, just a place to meet, so we can share information and I can prove that Baz had nothing to do with my kidnapping.”

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