Page 35 of Sinner's Secret

“Nice place,” Baz said before she could open the door.

“It was my parent’s place. I inherited it after they died.”

“So, you live alone?”

“Baz, I can hear the worry in your voice. Stop it, I’m a big girl and I’m armed. I also have a very good alarm system.”

“No system is perfect. If the kidnappers could get your phone number, they could get your address.”

“I’ll be fine, mom,” she said before exiting the vehicle and walking into her yard.

He watched until she’d entered the house, turned on the entryway light, and shut the door. When no screams or gunshots could be heard, he backed out onto the street and headed toward the cab company’s garage.

Nika was probably going to be proved right. A war was on the horizon in New York City, and no matter who was involved, it was going to get messy. He just couldn’t understand why the bad, bad guys kept trying to grab Nika. Did they know she was a cop? Was that the point, or was there another reason for wanting her?

Did they know the Breznik family was run by a couple of people who’d been alive too long to be entirely sane? Sure, his mother ran their operations in Slovenia and Europe, but that only made her more dangerous as far as Baz was concerned. She had more vampires in her arsenal than Yvgeny had.

As Baz pulled into the garage and parked in his usual spot, it occurred to him that it had been years since he’d talked to his mother.

Chapter Seven

Nika woke to the sound of someone coming up the stairs from her main floor. Several of the stairs squeaked and groaned as soon as any weight at all pressed on them.

For a moment, she thought she was still asleep, but another stair protested their passerby, then another.

Someone was in her house.

Why hadn’t her alarm gone off?

She glanced at the digital clock on her side table, but it was dark. Everything was dark. The power must be out.

But she could see streetlights lit outside. That didn’t make any sense, unless...the power to her house had been cut.

She slid out of bed, grabbed her handgun out of the side table and pointed it at the bedroom door. She quickly moved to lock it, then moved so she could put the bed between her and the door.

She grabbed her phone, and with one hand, typed out a call for help to Thomas and Smith.

Someone rattled the doorknob.

She typed out another quick message to Baz, then she dialed 911, and dropped the phone on the bed.

“Identify yourself,” she called out in a hard tone.

No one answered.

“The police are on their way,” she shouted. “And I’m armed. If you force your way into my bedroom, I will shoot.”

The door burst open, slamming against the wall and several figures rushed in. Bright white light backlit the bodies of four men. Light powerful enough to nearly blind her. At this distance, she didn’t need to see the fine details to shoot.

Nika aimed at the closest shadow figure and fired twice, once to the body and one to the head.

The man went down.

She fired at the next man and he went down, but the third reached her before she could squeeze the trigger again.

He knocked the weapon out of her hands, then reached for her. She reared her upper body back and aimed a flat-footed kick to his knee. The snap and crunch of his kneecap gave her adrenaline-fueled muscles another small boost.

He went down with a bark of pain, and she turned to face the fourth man.

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