FBI. That was new. Every winter somebody froze to death around here, and the FBI had never once shown up.
Her stomach tightened as she looked between them and her manager.
She knew what was about to happen. She started counting in her head as one of the agents approached her manager.
Five.
Her manager rubbed the back of his neck.
Four.
The agent glanced at Stina.
Three.
Her manager twisted toward the kitchen behind him like he wanted nothing more than to disappear.
Two.
She adjusted her apron and held her breath. Maybe this time he wouldn’t—
“Stina,” he called. “You can go home.”
Shit.
Without bothering to complete trash duty, she whirled to go inside and grab her purse and collect what tips she might have on the tables.
The stranger stepped in front of her. She noticed a scar on his cheek that made him look more menacing, as if he needed it. “You’re not going anywhere.”
Her patience snapped in half. Her best friend Jolie had told her a hundred times never to let men order her around.
She threw up her hands. “What is it with you? I need to go home.”
“Not yet.”
She tried to walk around him, but he stopped her again. She just wanted to go home. It was probably the last time she’d see her apartment before she got evicted.
None of this dead-body nonsense was helping her make rent. Her parents were coming to visit for the first time. She actually needed an apartment to show them around—not a tent on the street.
To top it off, she’d already started the day on a bad note when someone sent her a photo of her and Jolie with rifle sights drawn over their faces.
She’d received an unknown threat in the afternoon and gotten sent home two hours before her shift ended. What next?
Giving him her best glare, she bit off, “You don’t get to trap me here because you’re tall.”
He fixed her in his gaze. His eyes were deep gray, as shadowed as the darkest parts of the alley that were now being lit by spotlights.
“Look, if you want to question me about the body, I didn’t see anything. You watched me walk out of—”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out some cash.
She stared at it. “Are you trying to silence me?”
One corner of his mouth actually twitched in amusement. “Yes.”
“Is it blood money?”
“I won it fair and square.”
