Page 22 of Blood & Snow
"I wanted to work for the state forensics lab. Solve murders, identify victims, help families find closure."
"Instead, you're helping me avoid consequences…"
I muse, and for a moment, it makes her pause in her scrubbing.
She looks at me directly for the first time tonight, and I see pain mixed with resignation in her eyes.
"I'm surviving," she says quietly.
True enough. Survival requires adaptation, and she's adapted to circumstances that would break weaker people.
And the combination of intelligence, competence, and moral flexibility makes her valuable beyond simple evidence disposal.
It also makes her dangerously attractive.
I've spent the past two hours watching her move, appreciating the way her jeans highlight the curve of her hips, the way her sweater reveals glimpses of cleavage when she bends over her work.
I think even Ivan and Igor would admit she's completely fuckable.
But they're smart enough to keep their mouths shut and work.
"Why did your mother's illness end your education?" I ask.
"Medical bills consumed our savings. I couldn't affordtuition and hospital expenses simultaneously."
She returns to scrubbing, voice becoming flat and controlled.
"Cancer treatment is expensive even with state insurance."
"No other family support?"
"My sister worked double shifts to help, but nursing salaries don't stretch far enough to cover everything. And she's a single mother—husband ran off to the States with someone he met online."
Nadya's brush works methodically across the stained concrete.
"Someone had to make sacrifices. My education seemed less important than my mother's life."
The sacrifice didn't save her mother, though, leaving Nadya with debt and unfinished dreams.
Circumstances that made her desperate enough to answer my vague classified ad and vulnerable enough to accept the work instead of going straight to the police.
"Do you regret the choice?"
She considers the question while working on a stubborn blood stain.
"I regret that choosing became necessary. But family comes first, always."
Loyalty.
Another useful trait in someone whose silence I require and whose cooperation I need.
She'll endure considerable hardship to protect people she loves, which gives me leverage over her behavior.
And a rock-hard dick.
God, I want to fuck this woman so badly.
Why does she turn me on so much?
