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“She’s wrong,” Conor groused. “I like you, D.”
D sniffed. “I like you too, Conor. We vibe.”
“Can anyone join this ‘vibe' party?” I mocked, but I nudged D in the side too.
“Throat. Hurts.”
“Well, let’s try to take your mind off that.” Conor kicked the chair with his foot so she tipped backward.
Right onto Reinier.
“Oh, my God! It fucking touched me!” she cried, scuttling over the floor, away from the rotting corpse, like the spider I supposed she was.
That was when I had a ‘eureka’ moment.
Alessa had told me that the Kuznetsovs were like spiders. That they had webs in every corner of a person’s house.
A pauk in English was a spider.
Why had that only registered now?
With my mind elsewhere, D proved she was focused on her target. Her hand slid out to snag Temper in her hold. The moment she had a grip on her wrist, Temper was shrieking and clutching the now-broken joint to her chest. “Answer Conor’s question. Or I’ll stop playing nice.”
“I knew Star wouldn’t forgive me for betraying her! I-I figured that would make her cut me some slack,” she growled.
“You put Muñoz on her tail?”
She sniffed. “He owed me one.”
“He was a Sparrow.”
A burst of laughter fell from her. “You’ve no idea, have you? None at all.”
“Do you know how I killed Reinier, Temper?”
She grimaced at the corpse. “I can smell it. Electricity.”
“I have the same toy in my go bag.” As she tensed, I nodded. “Exactly. You don’t want to fuck me around. You want to answer what I ask or I will make sure that you suffer—”
“We’re sisters-in-arms! We served together!”
“And I should never have trusted you as far as I could throw you.” My problem here was that she was as indoctrinated as I was from breaking under force. Faced with that, I knew I had to lean on her passions, of which she had many. “I thought you were all about America. All about serving the Land of the Free.”
“Yeah, your self-righteous ass used to be the only decent thing about you. Now I’m learning that’s a lie too,” D grumbled. When Temper didn’t reply, D yanked on her hair. “Answer us.”
“I am not dirty. I serve the people. I act for the people. I protect the people,” she spat.
“You’re more deluded than I first thought,” Conor rumbled.
“Deluded? More like deranged. Anyway, cut the bullshit, Temper. What happened? How did you get involved in this mess?” D demanded.
“Mom got sick and Kuznetsov promised he’d help us. Plus, he told me I’d get a promotion.” Spite flashed over her expression. “At long fucking last.”
“D? Is that true about her mother?”
She rasped, “Shelly needed an organ transplant. A new liver.”
“Guess we know how she got one of those.” I blew out a breath as Conor and I shared a look. “Why did the Sparrows kill Belyaev and Kuznetsov?”
