Page 43 of Lovely Venom

“Yes.” My coffee arrives, and it tastes so good black that I skip cream and sugar. “There’s nothing wrong with it. She makes an honest living, given she’s had a tough life and no education.”

“Where?” he demands. “Where is she a dancer?”

“Why do you want to know?” I get defensive. “The people she works for are dangerous.”

Valdrin lifts his one blond eyebrow. “So am I.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Connor

When the rest of the week goes by and I don’t see Storm again, I decide to take my obsession to the next level. Only, I’m not the investigation specialist in the family. That means I’m asking my brother Shane for a favor.

But he’s no cyber lackey on the payroll who I can dodge questions around with my gun or my fist. He has a direct line to our boss, Griffin.

In his office, a luxury trailer he keeps on the UN construction site, I toss Storm’s hair comb onto Shane’s desk. I wrapped it in a plastic bag when I saw a few strands of her blonde hair were caught in the teeth.

Shane barely glances at it before picking it up. “What’s this?” he asks.

“It belongs to a woman I want you to find.” I cross my arms with a challenge.

“We have trackers to find people,” Shane says, his gaze drifting to Rhys.

My cousin stands near the window, his eyes roaming over me suspiciously.

“Not people. A woman. A woman I fucked, and I want to see her again. She left this behind. Find her.”

“Who is she?” Shane leans back in his chair. “Does she know who you are?”

“That’s a lot of questions.” I consider which one to answer first. “She knows my name.”

Something dark passes through Shane’s eyes. “Does she work for the DEA?”

My heart pounds against my chest, and I drop into the leather chair across from his desk. “You spying onmenow?”

“When a DEA agent is sniffing around your bedroom?” Shane answers and swivels his head to Rhys.

I freeze as my cousin pushes off the wall and stands behind Shane. “I recognized her the night of the stockroom raid. She’s the same woman I saw leaving your apartment months before that.”

“Her name is Raina Riatt,” Shane adds, rapping his fingers on the comb.

My world stops as abruptly and jarring as a record scratch. “How did you get her name, brother?”

“Rhys found her.”

“Really?” I face my cousin, controlling my anger since I’ve seen him nearly every damn day since that stockroom raid, and he hasn’t mentioned it to me.

“I was a private investigator in Dublin for the ministry, or did you forget?” Rhys states proudly.

“Why would you even remember some random woman who left my place, Rhys?” I challenge.

He pins me with a thoughtful stare. “You hadn’t been withanyonein months. You never brought a woman to your apartment. I figured she was important. I had Blade follow her. Got a name. Just in case.”

“I told you I didn’t like you taking over that apartment on the other side of the tunnel,” Shane says through gritted teeth.

“I keep everything locked.” I straighten my back. “I have cameras and an alarm thatyouinstalled. Besides, why didn’t anyone bother to mention my little plaything was DEA?”

I don’t want them to know she means anything to me. Will my new tattoo give me away?