Page 66 of In Her Blood
They disconnected, and Evelina had enough time to lower the phone to her lap before the questions started.
“Why does it sound like you’re coordinating anything other than a hit on Orlov?”
“Otto.”
“She agreed to fuckingmurderyou, Lina. You’re not talkin’ me into forgiving that snake. I read the texts, too.” Belying the anger in his words, Otto flicked the blinker on and whipped them into the next accessible parking lot. He rolled to an out-of-the-way spot and cut the engine.
Consumed by too many emotions to name, Evelina released her seat belt in order to better face him and did him thecourtesy of not modulating her voice. She could be genuine with him, and if everything went right, that would come to be an increasingly rare thing, so she was going to take advantage every time. “I know what Kat did.”
Otto twisted and laid an arm over the top of the wheel.
“I’m not asking you to forgive her,” Evelina continued. “I haven’t decided to forgive her, either.” As much as it hurt to admit. “I’m not going to let my guard down, or run off for some private girl talk or anything like that. I want you with me, and I want her out of reach. I want her to keep her hands where you can see them.”
His frown didn’t falter. “But you still wanna talk.”
Evelina nodded. “Once. Just to hear … how she’ll defend it, or explain it, or if she’ll apologize at all.” She wished—hoped—she could will him to understand. “I owe the friendship I thought we had the decency of one conversation, even if it ends up being for nothing more than my own peace of mind.”
Otto exhaled harshly. “And if her answers don’t make it better? If they make it worse?”
Evelina dropped her gaze to her phone for a long minute. She knew her response already, because she’d more or less figured it out the previous day, but this would be the first time she’d said the words out loud. “Then she’s exiled.” She lifted her stare back to his. “I won’t sanction a hit on a pregnant woman, no matter who the parents are, but I will banish her from Nikolaev territory.” It was imperfect. Someone in exile could potentially be a threat. But she had to have limits.
Otto nodded. “Fine. I won’t ask you about punishments if she violates that exile unless we get that far.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “What did you need figured out?”
She blinked at him. “You’re … letting it go?”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “I’mattemptingto accept that this is your situation to handle, an’ my job is to mitigate the parts that might hurt. So, if this is how you want to try to resolve things with her, I’ll try to respect that. As long as Orlov doesn’t insist on being a threat.”
She felt herself smile. “Then you’ll help me figure out a neutral, out-of-the-way place she and I can chat?” She knew him well enough to see in his eyes he didn’t want to.
He drummed his fingers over the wheel before sighing and scooping his own phone from the cupholder between them. “What kind of place did you have in mind? Public?”
Evelina mulled that over for a minute, playing it out in her mind. Meeting up at a random coffee shop seemed rather predictable, though she did understand the objective benefits of choosing a public space. Ignorance would be bliss for them and potentially keep her safe if Kat’s plea was a charade.No, I can’t go into this thinking like that.Worse, though, was that if it was true Kat was also trying to avoid Pyotr, Evelina doubted a few straggling innocents would stop him. Her legacy was off to a foul enough start as it was. The last thing she needed was a mass shooting she could have avoided.
“No,” she finally said, “somewhere private. Isolated.” She sank back into her seat and tapped her chin. “Off the beaten path, but not so far away that it’ll take us long to get there. I’m not giving Kat my whole day.”
“You still have that meeting with Grigoriy later.”
Shit.“Exactly.” She’d finally thought to call the last remaining brigadier once the coffee and potatoes had hit her system that morning, but she’d still been a bit surprised he’d actually answered the phone. Given that they’d never spoken, and everything that had happened in the past handful of days, she had half expected the man would ignore her outright. Instead, he’d agreed to meet her at the house that afternoon, after his lunchtime crew meeting. He hadn’t committed to anything beyond meeting for a face-to-face, but that was fine.
Except now it meant that wherever she chose to meet Kat, she also had to make sure she could circle back to the house no later than twelve-thirty. And that was probably pushing it.
“Let’s keep our options within a half-hour’s drive, factoring in traffic.”
Otto scrolled through his phone, tossed out a few suggestions, and finally they landed on another cringeworthy cliché that better fit her needs. A comparatively small warehouse on a larger concrete lot, the entirety of which was owned and neglected by a company the Nikolaevs had long ago paid off. The warehouse was on the outskirts of the city, so Evelina instructed Otto to set an alarm on his phone to make sure they left not a minute later than noon.
She relayed the location to Kat and stressed that her schedule was tight, so it was immediately or not until another day or more, and Kat promised to be there within half an hour. So Otto pulled back onto the road with only a low grunt to express his opinion.
Evelina dropped her phone back into the console once her own reminder was set—better safe than sorry—and returned her hand to Otto’s thigh just as an excuse to touch him. She was nervous and excited and something close to petrified all at once. It wasn’t all that much different from how she’d felt when she had first read that string of text messages.
Otto lifted her hand, threaded their fingers, and pressed his lips to her skin. He gave her a squeeze, teased her knuckles with his tongue, and then resettled her hand over his thigh like it belonged there.
The pressure in her chest eased.
They drove in silence until Otto turned into the lot. He made a slow circle through the mostly empty space and Evelina watched his head swivel side to side as he canvassed the area. There wasn’t much to see. The warehouse—not as run-down as she’d imagined, not as large as any she’d seen in movies—set back on the lot, a pair of rusting shipping containers on the far side of the property, and what looked like a rental SUV parked up near the front. If anyone happened to drive by, it would probably only look like investors were actually checking in on the place. Or maybe like someone was selling it.
Otto parked a short distance from the building’s side entrance, cut the engine, and clamped his hand over hers before she could retract it. “I know you want this to at least help shit make sense somehow,” he said, voice rough, “but don’t let your love for who you thought she was or who you wanted her to be blind you to whatever she shows herself as in there.”
Evelina tried for a smile, hoping to reassure him, though it was somewhat more strained at the looming prospect ofhis words. “I won’t. I promise.” She leaned forward before he could slip from the car and kissed his cheek. “I promise.”
