Page 4 of Erik

His deep voice wrapped around me like a snake ready to strangle its prey, and my throat tightened with dread. My mouth dried, and my tongue stuck to the roof even as I struggled a shallow breath in preparation.

“I’m not on any drugs or drunk or anything. I’m just having a really bad night.” Sharp, light brown eyes captured mine, and I didn’t look away before he nodded cautiously. For a second, I almost thought he’d take my word on it and leave me alone, but he sat down to cross his legs instead. “What? I . . . I just need a second, and then I’ll buy something and leave.”

“You’re sitting on a dirty floor in almost no clothes. It’s fourteen degrees outside. Do you have somewhere to go?”Wow!That question hit me square in the face, and the blood drained from my cheeks as my mind got stuck on it. Did I have a place to go? I mean, I didn’t have my own apartment anymore. I was essentially having a really extravagant couch surfing bout, and I was living off my sister’s rich-ass boyfriend.

This was worse than living in Dallas in some ways.

“I’m not homeless in the literal sense, I guess.” Mumbling against my knees, I tore my eyes off his to glance at his name tag poking out of his collar. “I have somewhere to go, Officer Peterson. I just don’t want to be there right now.”

“Why not?” Wasn’t that the question of the damn day . . . or night . . . whatever. The specifics didn’t matter. Scrunching up my nose, I shook my head dumbly, and he leaned back a little before taking off his hat. He had no hair at all, and I noticed his nice, trimmed goatee had some greys as well before he spoke up again. “My name’s Erik. What’s yours?”

“Natasha.” Reaching to rub my eyes with my fists, I heaved a massive sigh as Erik nodded with a hum of acknowledgment. “I guess the night guy called about my episode by the door. I thought I was over all that. I didn’t mean to make a scene.”

“I was already here. You don’t think we’d respond to a call this fast so far from downtown.” Chuffing a humorless, quiet laugh at that, I shook my head, and he glanced down either end of the aisle. “Between you and me, the graveyard workers don’t care as long as you’re not doing anything illegal to them. So, if you’re not drunk or on drugs, and you’re just having a really bad night, and you’re not doing anything illegal, Natasha.”

“You should be a detective.” My lip quirked up, and I rubbed my cheeks with my palms before I saw Illya hanging around the end cap. “I should go apologize.”

Twisting to catch sight of her, Erik stood up and held out his gloved hand, and I let him help me up. Even that bad joke made me feel a little better, and I rolled my jaw as he unzipped and shook off his jacket to place it gingerly on my shoulders.

“Have a safe night.” Erik had another jacket underneath the thick, rain-proof, insulated coat, and I rolled my lips between my teeth as he turned and strolled off. The thick muscles roping his back played when he adjusted his gloves up his wrists, and Illya scurried over to me to shoot me a wild look. Holding the jacket closed to keep the warmth in, I didn’t know what to say, or if there was even anything to say.I just need to go to sleep. That’s what I need to do. Then, this rollercoaster of a night will be over.

4

Erik

“I’m still not sure this was a good idea, Remmy.” Sitting in the passenger seat, I watched Natasha and her friend peel out of the parking lot, but Remmy didn’t try to go after them. Gut rot ate away at me, and I couldn’t get her troubled expression out of my head or keep it from flashing behind my eyes when I blinked. Whatever fucked up shit was going on, I was positive just from our short talk that it had nothing at all to do with Carlyle Santino or the Syndicate.

“It’ll be fine. She’s the sister of the girl he’s dating, and they’re twins. There’s no way they don’t talk.”Okay, revise that last statement. I’m completely convinced this is a horrible idea.We weren’t going to have any information on either girl any time soon, so a few photographs were all we had to base our assumptions on. Fiddling with his receiver, Remmy frowned out of the corner of my eye. “He’s the biggest, baddest criminal on the planet, Erik. Do you know what it would mean for us if we helped bring him down?”

“He’ssupposedlythe biggest, baddest criminal, Remmy. We have nothing on him at all except vague, circumstantial coincidence.” The receiver gave a faintclick, and Remmy finally tore his eyes off the device to frown at me.

“Which is why we put a bug in your jacket- to get proof.” Sourness coated my tongue, and Remmy’s frown deepened under furrowed brows when it spread across my expression. “You and I both know that bomb and Carlyle dating the sister isn’t a coincidence, Erik. We got assigned to this, so there’s no need to worry about it.”

Before I could answer, the receiver started to crackle, and I twisted in my seat to listen rather than hear Remmy try to justify what I’d just done.

“Hey, I’m sorry about earlier, Illya.”The low, genuinely apologizing voice sounded so sad, and I pursed my lips thinly as recent memories flashed in my mind’s eye. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“No. That’s kinda the great thing about it. I can’t really feel pain anywhere else anymore. Do you want to talk about it?”Natasha didn’t reply, and I sat back to rub my face in exasperation. This was wrong. This was not okay. This wasn’t what I became a cop to do . . . spy on a girl that was clearly going through some shit. Inhaling deeply, I held my breath for a long second before blustering a sigh and shaking my head hard.

“If he finds that bug, she’s going to get killed, twin sister or not.” Remmy ignored my grumble, rubbing his bald head absently, and my lip curled in a faint snarl. “Rem—”

“I don’t blame you, Natasha. That kind of thing, you can’t control it. Especially with everything that happened with your mom . . . you’re not a robot. You can’t just forget it even though that person is dead.”

“No offense, Illya, but I really, really don’t wanna talk about my mom. It’s not about her, anyway. It’s about Valerie. It’s always been about Valerie.”The receiver recorded up to ten hours before deleting itself and recording another ten. Every conversation was saved in a file by an auto-write program. There was literally nothing else to do but listen. Technically speaking, we didn’t even have to do that because someone could just read what had been backed up, and everything was time-stamped.

Man, technology was amazing even if the people using it weren’t.

“I’m off shift, Remmy, and I’m ready to go the Hell home and try not to feel like shit about this. I came out here because you got the call they were moving, but it’s my one day off tomorrow. I need to catch up on my sleep.” I had a feeling Remmy was going to spiral out of control with this case, and I glanced over at him warily. He was on the verge of retirement and had never done anything incredible. Despite being a detective himself, he watched too many damn cop shows, and he passed me the receiver to turn the car on.

“Let’s go inside. I used to come here on Saturday nights right before going home. Man, it’s been months.”Propping my elbow on the window to hold my cheek on my fist, I glanced out into the darkness and tried to stop my stomach roiling. “That cop was nice. I think it got colder.”

“He had biceps bigger than my head.”A smattering of laughter filled the car, and I tensed as realization slammed into me— I was going to have to listen to them talk about me. “At least you feel a bit better, right? Sometimes, all it takes is a little spark of kindness. Strangers are good for that when you feel like everyone else is pushing you away.”

“Yeah. I do feel better. This is a real nice jacket. Do you think he’ll get in trouble for giving it to me?”Tapping my temple absently, I viciously beat down the warmth in my chest at the appreciation that glowed in Natasha’s tone. Knowing it’d been a sham threatened to make me sick, and Remmy’s shitty driving didn’t help. He took a turn toward the suburbs, skirting the direct route through the city center, and I clenched my jaw loosely. “So, what do you think is gonna happen in Dallas? You saw it all on the news, right?”

“Who gives a shit about Dallas? It’s one less gang and a bad one at that. In San Diego, there were plenty of wannabes. I just wonder why the other gangs tolerated them for so long. I mean, it’s not like Baron Ninety-Nine is, like, the Sinaloa Cartel or anything.”My brows furrowed in concentration, and I made a mental note to check more deeply into the situation. Of course, Dallas wasn’t the only city under siege right now, and the killings there were regular and not seeming to slow down any time soon.

“I guess we got lucky.”A distinct lilt in Natasha’s voice scraped my eardrums, and my eyelids fluttered closed as I focused on breathing. “Valerie never knew. She still doesn’t know. I know it doesn’t make a difference— it’ll only make her feel bad. That’s why I think it’s getting worse, Illya— because she’s not around as much.”