Page 24 of Inked Adonis

Good.

“Boyko is legit,” I say, forcing thoughts of Nova aside.

“You have no idea who he is!” Myles cries out. “KGB, FBI, Andropov plant—take your pick of people who want to destroy you. He could be any of them.”

“You think I was born yesterday? I know how to handle men like him.”

Myles drops into a leather armchair, running a frustrated hand through his crew cut. “Fine. Let’s say this guy’s the real deal. Let’s say he really is some clandestine government agent from a three-letter agency and he really is going after the Andropovs’ arms ring. What’s stopping him from coming for us next?”

I fix him with a look that’s made grown men piss themselves. “My businesses are clean. Let him dig.”

That’s bullshit and we both know it. Nothing about the Litvinov Group is clean, but I’ve spent years building a facade that would make the FBI weep with frustration. They can look all they want. They’ll never find what’s buried beneath the surface.

That is, unless someone leads him straight to it.

My jaw clenches. The suspect list there is long and growing. Katerina. My brother. My own fucking father, who’d sell me out the second he found a way to put Ilya in charge. Any one of them might point a finger in my direction, if the price was right.

Some things you learn the hard way: blood isn’t thicker than water. It just leaves a bigger stain.

Myles sinks deeper into his chair. “I still don’t like it. I don’t like feds, and no matter what you say, I know you don’t, either.”

“They can be useful. Sometimes.”

If things go the way I hope they do, Angelo Boyko will become very useful to me. Our lunch at a Ukrainian restaurant in Rogers Park was supposed to be the most exciting part of my day. But I could’ve never guessed what the rest of the afternoon would hold.

I drape my damp jacket over the back of a barstool, and Myles screws up his face. “We’ll circle back to the lecture. Returning to my first question: why the hell are you sopping wet? Who pushed you?”

“Remember the Great Dane and his little dog-walker from a couple weeks ago?”

Myles chuckles. “The one that wanted to jump your bones? How could I forget?”

It’s a point of hilarity in this confusing clusterfuck of a day that his description works equally well for both the woman and the dog. Probably a good thing that Myles doesn’t know about Nova’s voice memo.

I stare at him, waiting for him to make the connection.

Finally, the lightbulb goes off. “You’re kidding.” Then his grin withers into a frown. “Maybe I should get eyes on this chick. Make sure she’s not a spy.”

“You really are getting more and more paranoid with age, Hagerty.”

“You pay me to be paranoid.” Myles plants his hands on his knees. “It’s a little convenient that this woman just miraculously shows up in your life not once, but twice, in the last couple weeks, don’t you think? Smells like a setup.”

“She can’t make the dog sit, but she can order him to hump on command?” I shake my head. “Take your tinfoil hat off, man.”

“It could’ve been orchestrated! Maybe she sprayed you with some sort of pheromone that gets the dogs going.Catnip by Calvin Klein,or whatever.”

I can’t stop myself from laughing, ignoring the dirty look Myles throws my way.

“Stranger shit has happened!” he insists.

“Nothing as strange as you.”

“You’ve got enemies everywhere, Sam.” He wags a scolding finger in my direction. “You can’t afford to trust a stranger.”

“Let’s talk about all of the people that have betrayed me already, shall we?” I start counting them off one by one. “My wife. My brother. My father as soon as he figures out how to disinherit me. With family like that, who needs to worry about strangers?”

He can’t argue with my extremely valid points, but it doesn’t stop his jaw from clenching. “I just don’t like the timing of this. What do you really know about this woman?”

“I know that she’s uncomplicated. Straightforward.”

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