Page 46 of Devious Corruption

Which isn’t great news. If they weren’t planning on leaving town, and they can’t be found, either Vartan Petrosyan hasn’t seen fit to let them loose, he’s decidedthey’re not useful anymore and got rid of them, or they were sent off without any time to prepare.

Their apartment is a shithole. It’s obvious Maxine tried to tidy up for them when she’d been here earlier, but there’s no hiding how these two idiots live. Dirty clothes in piles. The clean one’s are in piles too, but they’re on the dressers. I’m not sure these fools even know how to fold clothes. The other items are hanging in the closets on thin wire hangers.

And the fucking smell.

If these assholes return, they’re going to have a lesson on cleaning.

There’s a deep contrast to their apartment and Maxine’s. In her place, other than the fact she keeps it clean, there are little mementos of her family. There’re several pictures of her with the boys, and a few smaller pictures of only them on magnets on her fridge. They’re young in those, though, so I’m guessing they were school pictures she kept.

The boys have nothing in their place that suggests they even have a sister. On the counter in the kitchen in the pile of mail, there was a birthday card from her. The boys must have had a birthday recently, because it was still on the counter with chocolate smudged across it from the candy bar they’d set on it.

They were using the fucking thing as a plate.

I wonder if she noticed that when she was there. Did she see how little they’d thought of her card?

Anger boils in me again at the ungratefulness of those fucking punks.

My phone rings as I enter my bedroom. The day’s grime sticks to me, all I want is a hot shower and my bed.

“Yeah?”

“Nice way to answer the phone.” Kaz laughs on the other end.

“If you wanted nice, you should call at a decent hour.” I shuck out of my jacket and toss it on the bench at the foot of my bed and toe out of my shoes.

“It’s barely midnight. Thought you might like some information, but if you’d rather I call after you’ve gotten your beauty sleep, I can wait.”

“Shut up.” I nearly growl. “What do you have?”

“A sighting.”

“I’m not in the mood for games, Kazimir.” I grab my belt and work it open, pushing out of my clothes as I head to the bathroom.

A hot shower. It’s exactly what a man needs at the end of the day.

No. That’s bullshit.

What a man needs is a woman warming his bed when he comes home. Not any woman. Just one. And just like that, my mind conjures up the image of Maxine lying on her bed, legs spread for me.

“Are you even listening?” Kaz’s voice shreds the mental picture.

“I wasn’t. I am now. Go ahead.” I reach into the shower and turn on the water.

“Those little boys you told me about? The twins. They surfaced tonight.”

“Where?” My men haven’t been able find anything on them, and they’ve hunted down more skilled men than these idiots.

“I was at the airport, dropping a friend off. They were getting out of a cab. No bags with them.”

“At the airport? Any chance you waited to see if they got on a flight or where they were going?”

“They checked in at the desk to get tickets, but I didn’t see where they were headed. Domestic though, so not sure if that helps. Anyway, they’re not here in town.”

“What friend were you dropping at the airport?” I question.

“I have friends,” he says defensively.

“You do.” I agree. “And none of them would be flying on a commercial flight.”