Page 76 of Sinner's Salvation

Once they were in Matt’s car, his brother said, “What. The. Fuck.”

Gerry opened his mouth to explain, but Matt stuck his hand up in front of Gerry’s face.

“No, I don’t want to hear your pathetic excuses. This is your last chance, Gerry. Fix the situation or you’re on your own.”

“What do you mean on my own?”

“I mean, I won’t protect you from arrest or prosecution anymore, and neither will father.”

“But—”

Matthew stuck his hand in Gerry’s face again. “Stop talking. I swear, if I have to listen to your whining one more time, I’ll shoot you myself.”

Gerry shut his mouth. This wasn’t over, though. He would prove that Anna Breznik was some kind of leech on humanity. Then he would demand an apology from his big brother.

***

“Evan?” Anna said, inhis ear. “Wake up.”

Anna.

He opened his eyes to find her leaning over him, her hand on his shoulder.

“What’s happened?” he asked, pushing himself into a sitting position. “How long did I sleep?”

“It’s been six hours,” she answered. “There’s news.”

He got to his feet and followed Anna to the security screens. She pointed at one of them.

“Isn’t that the detective Baz asked to go with Nika and Brian to the hospital?” he asked. Frowning at the activity on the screen in the lobby area of the hotel.

There wasn’t any sound, not that they would have heard much if there had been. There were too many people for anything a microphone might pick up to be anything but garbled.

“Yes, and he’s visibly upset about something.”

Evan snorted. “He looks like he’s trying to impersonate a windmill. If he keeps flapping his arms like that, he’s going to need to register a flight plan.”

Anna burst out laughing, then covered her mouth, but her shoulders continued to shake.

The detective was talking to Baz, but a couple of groups of Chinese tourists were hovering close enough to overhear the conversation. Especially since it looked like the officer was shouting.

Evan was sure he was shouting when two FBI agents and Marek joined the lively conversation.

Nobody looked happy.

After the detective spoke some more, everyone got their phones out and were either texting or calling someone.

“This doesn’t look good,” Evan said.

“No.” Anna’s face was pinched. “And we can’t find out what happened because we’re in here and can’t leave.”

“Baz will come and tell us when he can,” Evan said.

“If it involves Nika in any way, he may leave to deal with it,” Anna told him. “You don’t know how difficult it was for him to stay behind when she went to the hospital.”

Evan thought about how he would feel if it had been Anna who’d been shot and rushed away. Would he have stayed behind?

“I don’t think I could have done it.”

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