Page 108 of Danger Close

I stared at Norkus, the vicious little thing. “Why?”

Daria's crystalline laugh rang out through the shed. “Nice! It’s actually really hard to cut out someone’s tongue while they’re alive. I respect that.”

Norkus gave her a lopsided smile, then bowed.

To me, she said, “he called me a slur. I took offense.”

Her foot kicked something on the ground. It was wet, and soft, almost gelatinous looking and covered in dirt and rocks. Holy fuck. That was his tongue.

The guy looked down at it with complete despair and horror.

“You asked me why I wanted a job with Paradigm.” Norkus smiled. “I have a lot of reasons. One of them is a jurisdiction problem.”

I stared at her, waiting for the rest of her explanation. She walked up to Clark, and stared up into his terrified eyes.

“The CIA can’t operate inside the United States. Let’s just say I’m like a cat with a ball of yarn.” She looked Clark up and down, her fang-like teeth glinting in the sparse sunlight. “I pulled the threads and found a vast conspiracy happening in my home territory, and you’re the only people who have the power to do anything about it.”

She gestured to the four men with a dismissive wave of her hand.

“As I said before, the calls are coming from inside the house.”

“And, what?” I asked, still skeptical as hell about the woman. “You intend to clean house?”

“Exactly.”

I snorted. “Why don’t you get your own house in order first?”

She stared at me, my insult obviously landing, no matter how vague the phrasing might have been.

“I intend to.” She turned around and walked out of the shed.

To where, I wasn’t sure. Nor did I particularly care. She was hired. That was that. I’d held up my end of the bargain.

“What the hell was that?” Jericho asked, still using his fake Russian accent, probably because it was scarier than his Upstate New York voice.

“She’s Roland Griffith’s mistress.” I bit my cheek, trying to hide the scorn from my voice. For her, and for her lover.

“Good for her,” Daria said.

“What?” My brows knit together.

“Roland Griffith is a hot daddy.” She shrugged. “Kamilla has never been nice to Wifey.”

ByWifeyshe meant Trinity. Her theory was that since she was Kai Griffith’swork wifeat Cerberus, then Trinity was her sister-wife.

Daria’s a weird cookie.

“I don’t even know how to react to that,” Jericho said. “And we’ve offered her a job?”

“Yeah.” I sighed, staring up at Raymond Clark.

Should I keep him gagged? Or did I want him to scream?

“Got any garden shears?” I asked, quietly.

I needed to get this guy down to his underwear. Teresa had broken at least a dozen bones. She had a dozen more cuts and scars. And she’d been sexually assaulted. Add the wounds she now had on her hands, and I was going to be in for a very, very long day and night.

“I’ll make you a deal,” I said, staring up at Clark. “If you want me to stop. If the pain gets to be too much… just tell me to stop.”