Page 17 of Shadow Of Sin

“I will.”

“And take care of my sister.”

“Sal,” Eva says, a warning in her tone.

“What? I said take care, not take out. There’s a difference.”

“I don’t need anyone taking care of me.”

“Everybody needs taking care of, E.” He says it lightly, but his eyes flick to me for half a second. He has the look of a brother who knows his sister carries everything alone and is hoping the guy at his bar might be someone she can share the weight with.

I hold his gaze. I don’t nod or promise anything. I just hold it because I don’t know how to process the fact that I care at all.

Eva stands up. “I’m leaving before you two start braiding each other’s hair.”

“Love you, E.”

“Love you too, you menace.” She looks at me. “Goodnight, neighbor.”

“Goodnight.”

She walks out and I can still feel her in the room after she’s gone. Like she rearranges the air when she moves through it, and it takes a minute for everything to settle back down.

I finish my ginger ale, drop some cash on the bar, and thank Sal.

“Hey, Wolfe?” he says as I’m leaving.

I turn.

“She’s tougher than she lets on. But she’s also more fragile than she’d ever admit.” He polishes a glass that’s already clean. “She’s been let down by a lot of people. And she doesn’t trust easily.”

“I hear you,” I say. Hard to trust people when you can’t really read their intentions. I thought I had it right once. I was very wrong.

He nods. I walk out into the cold night air.

Back at my apartment, I pull up the security feeds and review them. Everything’s quiet. The Albanian I saw walking past the window while I was eating is parked in a car two streets over. Same car as yesterday. He’s making a habit of being around here, which means I need to figure out who he is and why.

My phone buzzes. Ronan’s name flashes across the screen.

“Do you have an update?”

“I will on Tuesday.”

I can almost smell the smoke that’s probably coming out of his ears. He hates not getting what he wants when he wants it. But he also knows he can’t rush this.

“Tuesday, Wolfe,” he says in a tight voice before he ends the call.

I put the phone down and look at the feed from Eva’s building. Her light just went on.

I sit back in the chair and scrape a hand down the front of my face.

This is going to collapse. The math says I should be planning for that. Complete and utter devastation.

Instead, I’m watching my target through a screen, and I can’t make myself look away, even though I know how this will end.

CHAPTER 5

EVA