Page 91 of Ruby Mercy

“What Rayne told you to do doesn’t matter. I’m the one paying you.”

“I’ll quit, Kirill. Really, I will.” She groans. “Even though I really don’t want to. But if you are going to threaten me, then I’ll quit. I can find a job anywhere, but I only have one best friend.”

“If Rayne is your best friend, you should want what is best for her.”

“How do you know I’m not doing what’s best for her right now?” she asks.

“Because you’re keeping her away from someone who wants to take care of her.”

There’s a long pause. “Is this some kind of double entendre? Are you actually saying you want totake care of her?”

“Oh Christ,” I mutter, pinching the bridge of my nose, “I’m not going to fucking kill her.”

“I had to ask,” she says. “With you, no one can be sure.”

I drop down into the bar stool at Rayne’s counter. There’s mail stacked up on the countertop and a checkbook sitting next to a dish by the door. It’s not like she packed up and moved overnight. That’s a good sign.

“I am not going to hurt Rayne. Or Yuliana. I’d never do that.”

Natalia sighs. “I know, damn it, I know. I wish I didn’t know that, though. It would make it easier to keep my promise to Rayne.”

Despite everything, I smirk. “Are you secretly on my side?”

“Never tell Rayne,” she hisses. “I have been doing you some favors behind the scenes. I may have pushed Rayne to dance with that guy at the bar the night we ran into you and German.”

“I wouldn’t brag about that. It didn’t end so well.”

“The road to a happy ending is full of switchbacks. Rayne was convinced you didn’t care about her, so I proved her wrong.”

“I dunked her in the ocean.”

“You cared enough to dunk her in the ocean,” she amends. “It was a good sign. I was even trying to convince her to tell you about Yuliana before that part played out on its own, but I was on your team.”

“What about now?” I ask.

She sighs. “If I don’t tell you where she is, what are you going to do?”

“Probably pay off someone at the cell phone company to ping her location. Or track down her family and drop in on them one by one.”

“God, you are so dramatic. You know, there is an option where you just wait for her to come home?”

“You know Rayne as well as I do. The more time I give her to sit and stew, the more stubborn she’s going to get.”

“Uh oh. Is someone worried about being rejected?”

I snort. “Do I need to remind you I’m still your boss?”

“Do I need to remind you that I’m the person about to give you the information you need so you don’t have to brute force your way into her father’s house? Just answer the question and I’ll hand it over.”

I wait. She’ll figure out what she said in—

“Goddammit,” Natalia groans. “Fuck me and my big mouth.”

“There goes your upper hand.”

She mutters a string of curses under her breath. “Okay, but I still have the address. It’ll take you time to track him down. I could make it easy for you.”

Even though German missed the elephant in the room that was Yuliana’s existence, I’d trust him to track down Rayne’s father’s address within the hour. Probably thirty minutes.

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