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“Can we talk?” I raised my eyebrows at him.
He finished pouring the drinks and shoved them across the warped surface to the waiting patrons before striding to my end of the bar, arms crossed. “What?”
“What are you doing here?”
“What the fuck does it look like?”
“It looks to me like you’re running away.”
“From a predatory psycho? You’re damn right.”
“I’d love to know what gave you that impression.”
He gestured around the nearly empty bar. “Well, for starters, you’re a fucking stalker! First Dalton’s, now here. Are you going to start following me to the grocery store next? How about the laundromat?”
“Perhaps if you would have stayed the other night, I wouldn’t have had to resort to stalking. Or if you’d come back to work, as per the schedule.”
“I’m just supposed to blow you in the alley, or wherever else you want, so I could keep that job? No thanks. As you can see, I got a new one easily enough.”
“Yes, I see.” I ran my fingers across the scratched wooden bar, wrinkling my nose at whatever stickiness they swept over. “But I wasn’t going to coerce you into staying, which is why I’m here. To explain.”
He crossed his arms again, fixing me with a flat, disbelieving look.
“My social circle does not look favorably upon people who fall outside the norm. What you saw… Let’s just say, if you were Sergei, I wouldn’t be in a position to speak with you right now. Whathedoesn’t know doesn’t hurtmeand I prefer to keep it that way.”
“Oh, so this is an ‘I’m only sorry because I got caught’ kind of thing and you’re here to do damage control. Got it. Is it going to be a bribe or an ass beating? Or both? A little carrot? A little stick? You know what? Surprise me,” he snipped, turning to go.
I lunged across the bar and caught his wrist. “Can we go somewhere else and speak privately?”
He looked sharply at my hand before ripping it free. “Meet me out back in a half hour.”
Nodding with some reluctance, I nevertheless turned and walked out the front door. I wouldn’t put it past him to use those thirty minutes to quit and move on to a new location like some drifter, “make a run for it,” as his roommate said he was always prepared to do. But short of dragging him outside myself, all I could do was wait.
“Well?” Anton asked, dark brows raised.
I shook my head. “He isn’t making it easy.”
“Boss…” Anton spread his hands, asking a questionwithoutasking it.
“I know.” I met his gaze, making a point of not grinding my teeth. “He’s the type that would rather die than tell us anything. Sending Valery after him will only lead to another dead end. I can work him, Anton. I know it.”
“How are you going to convince him to tell you anything if he won’t even cooperate to save his life?”
“Patience,” I replied in answer to his question and as a reminder to myself. The clock might have been ticking with Sergei but if my former life taught me anything, it was to focus on the long game. Everything else was inconsequential. “I’ll be in the alley.”
“I’ll move the car.”
“Don’t let him see you. He’s already spooked.”
He made a face and gestured at the Escalade. “It’s not an Oka. How do you expect me to hide itandwatch over you?”
“You’ll figure it out. You always do,” I replied with a smirk, strolling down the sidewalk.
While I waited in the alley, I tried to formulate what I was going to say, drafting and revising it in my head a dozen times. Threats wouldn’t work. Bribery wouldn’t work. I doubted pleading would work either, even if I could bring myself to do it.
Marek was such a skeptic about everything. Cynical, distrustful. WhatcouldI say to make him see reason? It was obvious he’d spent his life being let down, which didn’t give me much in the way of optimism. I wasn’t starting at zero with him and moving forward. No, I’d unknowingly started this journey fifty paces behind. Before I could get anywhere I had to pave over someoneelse’sdamage.
But he was still the only lead I hadn’t pursued to the fullest extent. The drugs I took from him at Dalton’s were the highest quality we’d collected; they hadn’t been cut with the usual mixers or diluted in any way. It was as close to pure as you could get without killing your buyers, which meant he had a direct connection to whoever the supplier was and didn’t get the product after it had changed hands five times. If I had any hope of fulfilling my objective, Ineededto win Marek back before Sergei grew tired of excuses.
