Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107079 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 535(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107079 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 535(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
I frowned. “Who?” We hadn’t identified the intruder.
Halifax frowned at me. “Gennadiy Aristov, who do you think?”
I felt my eyes go wide. “It wasn’t Gennadiy!”
“How do you know?” asked Fitch.
“Yeah, you said he had a ski mask on,” said Hadderwell. Both of them sounded gentle and…nice, for once. In law enforcement, when one of you gets hurt or attacked, all the bickering and infighting stops because it’s one of us.
“I saw your description; it fits Gennadiy perfectly,” said Halifax. “White guy, same height, same build…you didn’t hear him speak…”
I felt like the ground had tilted and everything was sliding helplessly sideways. “But…it wasn’t him,” I mumbled. “He wouldn’t do this.”
The others looked at each other, confused. Halifax put his phone call on hold for a second. “Alison, he hates you. Your entire job is trying to bring him down. He’s Bratva, he’s a killer…what am I missing, here?”
“But…I know it wasn’t him!”
Caroline frowned. “How?”
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Because I know Gennadiy’s walk as well as I know my own, and this guy walked differently. Because he wasn’t wearing Gennadiy’s cologne. Because…
Because we…
There was no way I could explain. Not without telling them about him hugging me in the graveyard and the secret meeting where he’d given me the tip about the cesium and me warning him about the attempt on his life. Not without explaining that, somehow, my mortal enemy had become…something else.
“I just know,” I said lamely.
Halifax put his hand on my shoulder. “You’re shaken up,” he said softly. “It’s okay.” He squeezed my shoulder, then turned away and went back to his phone call.
I looked around at all the concerned faces, then turned and looked at my apartment building, awash in red and blue lights. Reality set in and it felt like someone had just dropped an ice cube through my soul. Are they…right? Everyone was so sure. Was I just blind to it because I didn’t want it to be true?
Gennadiy was a killer, I knew that. And while a lot of high-up Bratva guys don’t do their killing personally, Gennadiy did get his hands dirty: he’d said as much to me, more than once. This could have been him.
I bit my lip. Just because we were attracted to each other didn’t mean he couldn’t just snap and decide I was causing him too much trouble. Hell, maybe he decided to end me because he felt something for me.
I started running back through the attack in my mind. The guy had been Gennadiy’s height and build. The ski mask had covered everything except his mouth, and it had been dark. Was I that sure he’d walked differently, that sure he’d smelled differently? Every fact I grabbed at turned to smoke.
What if it was him?
I walked a little way from my apartment block, where it was quieter, and thought. I thought about the feel of his arms around me in the graveyard. The look in his eyes when I’d said, but you hate me. All the way back to his cold, protective fury at the strip club. The memories were like a river’s current, washing away all the uncertainty and leaving only immovable rock.
Gennadiy was a killer. And that seething, vicious temper of his was scary. But hurt me?
No. He wouldn’t hurt me.
I took a deep breath and looked around me. Dawn was just breaking, the sky turning from deep blue to pink and gold.
Halifax was after the wrong guy. I had to stop him.
But the police still had questions for me, and by the time I was finally allowed to leave and go to work, it was after ten. I met Halifax, Hadderwell, and Fitch on their way out of the FBI building.
“I got the warrant,” Halifax told me, brandishing it. “We’re leaving to pick up Gennadiy now.
I gave him a weak smile and watched him go, my toes nervously dancing inside my biker boots. The irony wasn’t lost on me. A few months ago, I’d been desperate to bring Gennadiy down. I still wanted to bring him down. Just not for something he didn’t do.
Relax, I told myself as I changed out of my biker leathers and into my suit. Halifax could arrest Gennadiy, but they’d have to let him go. There was no evidence it was him in my apartment because it wasn’t him.
I frowned at myself in the bathroom mirror. So why was a sick fear spreading through me? Why did it feel like I was missing something?
I stood there gripping the sink, staring down at its clean whiteness without seeing it. My cop brain started grinding. I felt myself rise up on my toes and slowly sink down. No evidence. No evidence…
I froze, still up on my toes, as everything suddenly reversed in my head. That means there’s no evidence that could prove it wasn’t him, either. The intruder had been super-careful not to leave any. He’d approached my building from a side where there weren’t any security cameras, so there were no pictures of him. He’d worn a ski mask so I didn’t see his face. He’d worn gloves, so there were no prints. He was covered head to toe, so no DNA was left behind. In fact, the only evidence he’d left was…