Page 166 of Blood & Snow

His eyes narrow on me, and I see the moment recognition dawns on him that I'm not lying.

It's like I can see the movie screen of his mind playing that moment he met her here in his very living room.

"I didn't approve of your bringing a girl into our operations who could compromise me."

"She won't talk," I say.

"Now you change your tune. How easily the tables turn, Xander."

He leans over his desk and glares at me down his nose while I stand rigid in my stance, refusing to give up.

"You don't know that she's already given up information. They could be on their way here right now. You don't know that."

"I do."

"How?"

Leonid stands again and this time he walks straight to his liquor cabinet.

"How do you know she won't break? How do you know she won't trade your life for hers? Women aren't loyal, Xander. They're survivalists. They do what they must to live."

The whiskey gurgles into his glass, making my mouth water.

What I wouldn’t do to have a glass and get wasted, forget everything that's happening.

But I have to keep my head if I'm going to get her back.

"She's different."

"They're all different until they're not."

He stops in front of me.

We're the same height, but his presence is intimidating as fuck.

"You have six days left to finish the Sokolov Brotherhood and prove your loyalty to me. Yet here you are, wasting time on a girl who'll be dead by tomorrow. Maybe she already is."

"She won't be dead."

"You don't know that."

"I'll find her."

"How?"

Leonid's voice rises, the first crack in his control.

"You've been looking all night. You've found nothing. Arkady Sokolov isn't a fool. He knows you'll come for her. He's using her as bait, and you're walking into his trap."

"I don't care."

"You should." Leonid steps closer.

His breath's warm on my face and the scent of his whiskey wafts up to my nose.

"If you go after her, you'll die. And if you die, I lose my best enforcer. I lose the man who's spent weeks dismantling my enemies. I lose everything I've invested in you. For what? A cleaner?"

"She's not a cleaner."