Page 22 of Shadow Of Sin

“You shouldn’t have been doing the work Dmitri was giving you,” he says, turning back to the screen. “It’s like using a scalpel to chop firewood.”

My laugh cracks the quiet. “Did you just compare me to a scalpel?”

“Would you prefer a different metaphor? One that’s a little more cliché?”

“I’d prefer answers to the many questions you keep dodging, but I’ll take the scalpel compliment for now.”

He looks at me and there’s that flicker again. The almost-amusement that shows up and disappears so fast you’d miss it if you weren’t looking.

I’m looking now. I’ve been looking at him since I walked in. I need to stop because every hour I spend with Wolfe, I learn something new about him, and every new thing makes it harder to keep my guard up.

The way he cocks his head when he’s thinking. The way he taps his thumb against his leg when he’s stuck on a problem. The way he said I shouldn’t have been doing Dmitri’s work—not like he felt sorry for me, but like it genuinely offended him that someone wasted my talents.

Nobody has ever been offended on my behalf before. I don’t know how to process that one. Part of me wants to lean into it. But the smarter part…the part that kept me alive in prison…says that’s exactly how they get you. They make you feel seen, and then they use the view against you.

He catches me staring and holds my gaze. For a second neither of us says anything. My pulse ticks up and I hate it.

“I should go,” I say, standing up. “It’s late.”

“Yeah.” He clears his throat. “Same drill next time. Dmitri gives you a job, you deliver to him, then you bring it to me.”

“I know how it works. I’m the one doing it.”

“Right.”

I grab my jacket. At the door I stop and turn around. He’s already locked back into his screen, but his thumb is tapping against his leg again.

I wonder what he’s thinking…and if what he’s thinking about is on the screen.

“Wolfe.”

He looks up.

“The Honey Nut Cheerios thing. Seriously. Get some real food.”

“Cheerios are real food.”

“Cheerios are a cry for help.”

I close the door behind me and walk home through the cold, the drive in my pocket empty now, my head full of shell corporations and property lists and a man who eats cereal for dinner and called me a scalpel like it was flattery.

I just handed stolen data to a stranger for the second time in my life. The first time, it cost me everything.

The difference is, Daniel made me feel safe.

Wolfe makes me feel seen.

And I don’t know which one is more dangerous.

CHAPTER 6

WOLFE

Ronan texts me at six in the morning. Three words.

Time is up.

I tug the back of my hair and sit up in the bed that came with the apartment.