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Kri chuckles and reassuringly clasps Shep’s hand. The gesture is sweet and loving, making me long for a connection like that. Naturally, my eyes sweep the room and land on Klein, who’s still in a state of shock over what we showed him in the parking lot.
“I’m going to wrap his dick in barbed wire, cut it off, and shove it down his fucking throat,” Shep fumes.
“Yikes.” Val holds her phone to her ear and pretends to make a call. “Hello, DCF. Yes, I’d like to request a less homicidal parental unit if it’s not too much trouble.” She pauses and huffs. “Yes, I can hold.”
After reaching into his pocket, Shep throws something at her from across the room. It falls to the floor, but she scoops it up and grins maniacally. “Snickers. Yes! Score.”
“Hey, no fair,” Kri whines, her lower lip jutted.
Shep tosses another snack-size chocolate bar at her. Kri catches it and giggles to herself, adding a shoulder shimmy. He grins at his girls for a beat before resuming his profanity-fueled trip around the room.
He’s raging because he recognizes one of the perps who abducted Lettie. The taller of the two men— Yevdokim Ivanovich— works for an old friend of ours.
And I use the wordfriendsarcastically.
Yuri Zaytsev. Local strip club owner with extensive ties to the criminal world and the Russian Mafia— Lenkov in particular. Yuri has a long, sordid history with the Lenkov crime family. He also has a long history with Shep and me.
Lenkov has been on my radar for more than a decade, which means Yuri has been too. I’d give anything to take these sickos down.
And bytake them down, I’m game for anything from prison to disembowelment, or perhaps taking them skydiving without a parachute.
Redleg’s recent run-in with Lenkov’s people to save Kri and Valerie is part of what drew me here.
What does all this have to do with Shep’s profaneode to Russia?
Great question. I’m glad you asked.
Yev, the dirtbag who kidnapped Lettie, is Yuri’s right-hand man. He’s the guard who pats Shep down each time he goes to Yuri’s strip club for intel. If Yuri’s man is involved in the trafficking ring, then Yuri is too. On the off chance he isn’t, he knows it’s happening and hasn’t stopped it.
Why would Yuri’s involvement piss off Shepthismuch?
Another fantastic question.
Because when Shep and I served on the task force years ago, Yuri was an intel source. We went to bat for him because he swore he’d changed— seen the light and all that shit. He got a nice deal out of it.
Apparently, he played us.
Unlike my friend, I’m not reciting theABCs of Swearingbecause I’ve been stewing in this shit for years.
Instead of mollifying Shep, I force a yawn to help contain my nerves. Cal catches my eye and shoots me a toe-curling wink.
I wish I were cuddled on his lap or spooning with him in bed instead of sitting with the team at Redleg this late at night. No offense to the team, but I’d prefer some more nakey-nakey time with him. He was but mere moments from frosting my lady cake.
Ever since we got to Redleg, he’s been reserved and contemplative.
Alarmingly so.
It’s beginning to feel like he’s stressing over more than the news of who Lettie is. Is he spiraling with regrets about what happened between us? More of that pesky self-recrimination?
Or worse, did the revelation about Lettie remind him of why he shouldn’t trust me? Why he should…hateme?
I’ll add it to the ever-growing list ofshit I don’t know and don’t have the time to figure out.
Before I have time to fixate, Kri pipes in with a question. “How did you ID and locate the tangos that fast? You said you found out about the abduction this afternoon, right?”
Klein perks up at this, rejoining the conversation. “Because Mia’s a badass.”
Kri bats her lashes at me in jest. “That’s why she’s my girl crush.”
