Was I that obvious?
“I’m just asking to make sure it’s all good on your end.I mean, I looked her up.She’s hot,” he said without looking up from his phone.“I’d totally hit that.”
“Don’t.”My voice was a thread away from snapping.
Renat tilted his head, mocking.“Relax, Tuna.It’s called a test.You fail.”
I let out a long breath.Well, fuck.Maybe I was that obvious.
Renat picked up the statement, tucked it under his arm, and stood up.“I will not use her unless I have to.But if something comes up, you call me.Yes?”
“Yeah.”
He zipped the jacket and left without looking back.
I stayed a minute, staring at a crack in the ceiling and wondering how the hell I’d let a guy like Volkov get to me.Well, no helping it now.Time to go.
My old military buddies, who had cursed me with my nickname, owned a security company, and I needed to check what they could do to make Nadya’s apartment just a little safer.The place wasn’t in the worst neighborhood in Brooklyn, but it wasn’t great either, and the locks were a joke.Plus, it wasn’t that hard to get in through a window or the balcony.
I left the cafe and went for the bike I had rented as soon as we got back this morning.Public transportation out here was good, but I still liked having my own wheels, and there might be times I’d need to go somewhere with Nadya, so a motorcycle seemed like the easiest solution.
A surprisingly short and traffic-free ride later, I walked into the brand-spanking new office.They’d only opened a couple of years ago, so the shine hadn’t worn off.
The place smelled like lemon cleaner and new carpet, but the conference table in the lobby was already scuffed up with the rings of a hundred Starbucks cups.Typical.
My old friends, Dan, Sean, Ryan, and Chris were co-owners, but only Sean seemed to be in right now.He sat at his desk, shirt sleeves rolled up, tie already pulled loose.
“Look what the cat dragged in.Tuna!”He stood, grabbed my hand, pulled me in and slapped my back so hard it about collapsed a lung.“There goes the neighborhood.”
“Good to see you, too.”I kept it light even though I had just sent an FBI agent to interview Sean’s girl.Somehow, Sean had ended up with Nadya’s older sister.
From what little I’d seen of Vera, she looked like the exact opposite of Sean.Where he was all smiles and jokes, she just looked mean.
Sean gestured to the chair next to his, all business now.“Sit your ass down and tell me what you need.”
“A very long story I’m not at liberty to discuss with you, but Nadya Almaznaya needs better security for her apartment.”
Sean’s eyebrows went up, but he didn’t say anything.I could see the calculations behind his easygoing smile.The man had zero poker face.
“Is she in trouble?”he asked, voice lower now.“I thought all that was over.”
“Not exactly,” I said.“I can’t tell you most of it, but yeah.She might be in danger.And so might Vera, but she doesn’t know as much, and she lives with you.I assume your place is secure.”
Sean nodded slowly.“That’s all I need to know.”He flipped the pad on his desk, started scribbling notes.“Just a standard reinforced deadbolt, or do you want the whole panic-room treatment?”
“Just make it something a halfway decent pro would curse at.Maybe a new camera or two and an alarm on the balcony door.”
“I’ll get Ryan on it.He's training our new engineer, so between the two of them it’ll be done in no time,” Sean said, jotting down the details.“You want us to do it quietly, or be flashy about it?”
“Quietly.”
There were pros and cons with both options.Under normal circumstances, being flashy could deter would-be robbers, but we weren’t dealing with that.If anyone came after Nadya, they’d be determined, so if they couldn’t get her at home because they could see all the security stickers and cameras, then they’d do it somewhere else.
He grinned.“Wanna catch them in the act?”
I nodded, even though the idea turned my stomach.
Sean leaned back in his chair and gave me a long look.“Is this about the case, or are you being an overprotective boyfriend?”
