Page 67 of In Her Blood
He met her stare, nodded somberly, and finally climbed to his feet.
She had her phone tucked into her purse by the time he got her door open, and it felt like seconds morphed into hours as they approached the door. The unassuming door became an unassuming hallway, because it was not the main entrance, and her heart beat louder in her ears as her anxiety spiked. She wasn’t supposed to feel so nervous going to meet her friend.
Except, Kat wasn’t her friend anymore. Not really. She didn’t know what label Kat fell under anymore.
The hallway spat them out into a large main space, clearly the heart of the warehouse based on the sudden added height to the ceiling overhead. Evelina cast a brief glance around, berating herself for why she might have expected it to be anything other than an empty structure of steel beams, before Kat pushed off the opposite wall.
“Hey.”
Evelina drew a breath as she eyed the young woman whom she’d so recently considered her dearest friend. Kat’s hair was a mess, like she hadn’t combed it in days, and her eyes were red and baggy. She was dressed down and casual, much more than usual, and fidgeting with her hands in front of herself. She’d looked more composed after throwing her guts up into a convenience store toilet twenty-four-hours earlier.
Had it even been twenty-four hours? No. No, it had not. Not quite.
Evelina swallowed. “So, I’m here. You’re here. I want to say ‘it’s good to see you’ but I’m still really pissed at the whole assassination plot thing. And the whole ‘bestie sleeping with my bastard cousin behind my back’ thing.”
Kat let out an awkward laugh and reached up, tucking a hand behind her head.
“Hands where I can see them,” Otto snapped.
Kat froze, her eyes blowing wide. “Seriously?” She pulled her arm slowly back into view and down to her side. “What do you expect me have tucked in my hair, a freaking throwing star?”
“Now that you mention it.”
Kat’s jaw dropped.
Evelina gave herself a mental smack and said, “You knew how this would be, Kat. You know what we saw. And I only have like an hour, so if we could skip the not-so-righteous indignation and get to the explanation?” She actually had closer to ninety minutes, but she recognized she would probably need some time to clean herself up when this meeting was done. It was a white lie she could live with.
Kat pulled her lips into a pout for a moment, then turned her focus back to Evelina. “Right. Okay.” She closed her eyes and her whole upper body lifted with an indrawn breath. When she opened her eyes again, a tear rolled down her cheek. “I’m sorry.”
Evelina arched a brow when Kat added nothing more. “You’re sorry?”
Pyotr stepped out from the alcove just beyond Kat. “Yes, it’s annoying, isn’t it?”
Something clicked in the air behind them before Grisha’s voice joined the conversation. “What was that you said a moment ago? Keep your hands where I can see them, Otto. I’d hate to have to add you to the list of people Evelina’s had to grieve this month.”
Nausea rolled through Evelina’s stomach as her lung function crawled to a stop and her heartrate doubled. Understanding slammed into her with all the clarity only hindsight could offer. “You lied to me.” And that shouldn’t be her hangup, not with a gun once again at Otto’s head, but Kat had no goddamn right to be standing there crying over her own treachery. Not anymore.
Pyotr tipped his head back and laughed, a full, belly-shaking laugh that carried through steel rafters overhead. “Oh, Evie,” he said as he composed himself. “You still don’t understand.” He laid a hand on Kat’s shoulder and smirked. “I’m the one who sent her stumbling into your path all those years ago. This whore’s been spying on you in exchange for my dick and better security at that disgusting bar from thestart.”
Evelina’s head spun.No.It couldn’t be true. All those years … all the memories … all the gossip … all thesecrets…. It had to be a lie.Her desperate gaze clashed with Kat’s tearful one and Kat smiled weakly as she lifted both hands to her nonexistent baby bump.
“I didn’t set out to hurt you, Lina,” Kat said. “It’s just that I love Pyotr.” Her smile widened, the expression becoming something almost forced, and her gaze flicked away for just a second. “And we’re going to be a family now.”
She wasn’t denying it. Kat wasn’t denying the awful accusation Pyotr had made at all.
“Why,” Evelina choked out. “Why the hell would you do something like that?” It wasn’t what she should be demanding, let alone what her mind needed to be dwelling on. But maybe if she let herself react initially, she could figure out a way to get her and Otto out of the damn warehouse without either of them taking a fatal injury. Preferably any life-altering injury at all.
“Why?” Pyotr mocked. “The fact that you didn’t try doing the same to me just proves how far behind the fucking eight-ball you are, Evie.” He moved a half-step away from Kat and simultaneously drew a gun from his back. “You haven’t been preparing like I have.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Evelina snapped, her temper finally rising. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t hyper-focused on sabotaging your future for the entirety of my fucking life, you miserable, narcissistic bastard.”
Pyotr only continued to smirk. “Yes, I know. You had it so hard. Taking a few lumps from your daddy when you mouthed off, forced to watch your failure of a mother sob over children she never knew three times a year, and being allowed nearly every freedom while you waited on tenterhooks to be assigned some husband you didn’t want. Do I have that about right?”
There was nothing quite like hearing a crudely abridged version of things she knew she’d cried about to her bestie on multiple occasions to throw cold water in the face of her bleeding heart. Evelina pulled in a deep, ragged breath and squared her shoulders. There was no sense going for the gun in herpurse—she or Otto would be dead before she’d have it in-hand and properly aimed. So, she opted for a different approach.
“If you’ve been preparing to square off against me all this time,” she said, “then I assume you’re ready to confess to being the one who killedOtets?”
A momentary silence fell over the group, before pride lit Pyotr’s eyes. “Did you figure that out all on your own?”
