Free Infernal: Bite The Bullet by Jess Raven, Paula Black

go to such lengths for
a bunch of missing illegal immigrants who probably didn’t even want to be
found?
    “I was gathering intelligence.”
    I couldn’t help my eyeroll. “Is that what you call
it?"
    He fixed me in a glare that sparked with those
stupid-pretty, angry green flecks. “I danced. What? You think I fucked the
clients? I asked for your help, not your judgement.”
    “Why would I help you?”
    “Your brother is dead, Neva. For Mariya, there may
still be a chance.”
    “Mariya?” I didn’t know anyone called Mariya.
    “My sister.”
    Realisation dawned and with it, a sick shame at
how I’d judged him. This was as personal for him as it was for me. An apology
hovered on my lips, but was promptly drowned out by the shrieking approach of sirens.
    “You called the police?”
    Man, he sounded angry, and I held up my hands,
warding him off.
    “No, I-” Shit. My hands dropped and my
shoulders curled in. I couldn’t look at him as I admitted it. “I left a message
on Detective Dalton’s voicemail.”
    “Oliver Dalton?” His expression turned murderous.
    “Yes, he’s the detective on Daniel’s murder case.”
    Disgust growled in his throat. “You told this man
you were with me?” His fists clenched and unclenched, his strong jaw tight and
twitching.
    “No, I just gave him your name as a suspect. What
is the problem here? If you are who you say you are, you have no need to hide
from the authorities.”
    He scrubbed a palm over his tight-cropped skull.
“Dalton is, how you say? A dirty cop. In the pocket of Gilles.”
    “Who the hell is Gilles?"
    “There is no time now,” he said brusquely. The
sirens were getting closer and it added a powerful edge to his movements.
Footsteps pounded down the pavement in the distance.
    “Are you going to run?” I asked, straining to see
how many were coming.
    He shook his head. “It is you who must run, Neva.
You have uncovered too much. They will kill you.”
    I blinked. “Me? What about you?”
    “I will let them take me in, eventually. It will
buy you time. Give me your phone, quickly.”
    His tone commanded complete obedience, and I
handed it over numbly. He worked the SIM out and destroyed the phone beneath
his boot, tossing the shattered components into the Thames.
    Shock put me a few seconds behind, like a program
on time-lapse. When I caught up with what he’d done, I gaped. “Why did you do
that?”
    “Because they are tracking your movements. How do
you think he found you so quickly?”
    “Oh no. No. No. This is all too paranoid. You’re
some psycho escaped from an asylum, aren’t you? Forget to take your meds
today?” I was losing it.
    He crowded in close. “Listen to me,” he said, his
expression grave as he gripped my upper arms. “Your life, my sister’s life may
depend on this.”
    He pressed a set of keys into my hand and folded
my fingers around them. His skin was warm and I could feel the pulse in his
thumb as it brushed over my knuckles. It was hammering.
    “You cannot be found here with me. I will keep
them occupied. Go back to my apartment. Remove the evidence you found, the
laptop too. When they come to search, there must be nothing to link you to any
of this. If they believe I told you anything, the moment they think you’re a
threat to Gilles, they won’t hesitate to cut you down.”
    “But I called him. I gave him your name –”
    “Go. Now!”
    I obeyed. God help me, but I believed what he was
saying.
    I was out of sight but not earshot when I heard
the shouts of the police officers demanding he come forward with his hands
visible. It sounded more like an invitation to fight than to surrender, and when
the first sickening thud impacted against flesh, I fled.

CHAPTER ELEVEN
     
    With my body running on the fumes of adrenaline, I
backtracked shakily to Konstantyn’s apartment. Having taken a roundabout route
to avoid the police, I couldn’t even be sure I had the right building; they all
looked the same to my