Page 63 of Hey, Daddy

And, of course, Shasha shared ownership of Jack’s with Paul Green, who funny enough, had no “Jack” in his name.

When he’d first wanted to open the business, he’d been working as a chef in an upscale kitchen in Dallas. He was the husband of our housekeeper, Polina. One day, when Paul and Shasha had been talking, Paul expressed how unhappy he was with his life, and Shasha had urged him to open his own business.

Paul had, and now it was the “it” place in the DFW metroplex and one of the most sought-after delis in town.

Oh, and they were also very discreet.

Which likely was why Haze had suggested it.

I knew he knew it was owned by Shasha, though.

There was no way that he hadn’t made the connection after the last month.

“Okay.” Dima eyed the two of us. “See you in five.”

Then we were both headed in separate directions.

Haze opened the door to his cruiser, and I’d just stepped inside when a feeling of wrongness overtook me.

I frowned as I looked around, spotting nothing.

My gaze came to a stop on Dima, who was standing outside the Jeep texting, and my heart stopped.

There was a very large box in the back of it that I didn’t put there.

“Haze,” I said with terror. “Stop Dima.”

Haze looked at me, then at Dima, and yelled.

Dima looked up.

He took four steps toward us when the Jeep exploded.

People are like, ‘bear with me’ and don’t even have a bear with them.

—Nastya to Haze

HAZE

Soot and ash continued to rain down as I stood with John and an FBI agent named Jefferson Evador.

My gaze was on the back of my cruiser as I stared at Dima, who was holding his sister close to his chest.

Shasha, an angry thundercloud next to them, had his hands on his hips and was fuming mad.

“What happened?”

I’d repeated the fuckin’ answer ten times already, yet I started over for the newcomer and explained.

“I had some questions for Nastya, so I asked her to come with me to Jack’s. She chose to ride with me, and her brother was going to drive her Jeep to Jack’s. Before either one of us got into our vehicles, Nastya called out to her brother, asking him if hecould come to her for a second. He was about eight steps away from the car when the Jeep exploded.” I fibbed slightly.

John caught the lie for what it was, but Evador didn’t react.

He nodded.

“Did you see anything suspicious?” he asked.

I shook my head but explained Nastya’s words. “She saw a box in the back of the Jeep that she didn’t put there.”

---