Page 48 of Retribution

“With Derry-fucking-O’Malley. You’ve heard the stories about him.”

“Finn and Lorcan warned him to keep his hands off me.”

Malik drops the plunger and comes to cup my face. “He catches a whiff of inauthenticity off you and you’re dead or worse. You need to be careful around him.”

I jerk my chin out of his hands. “I know the score, Malik. Don’t patronize me.”

“I worry about you.”

“Yeah, well, with Dai Qing at my back, I worry about me. How the hell did you end up here?”

“I got an introduction. Zhangs are up-and-coming in child-and-sex trafficking. We had an in. I was tired of being on the sidelines. We jumped on it.”

I press my fingers to my forehead. “I’m here to make a deal with these people for Finn.”

Malik doesn’t say anything. I’d probably punch him if he reminded me of my job.

I pick up the plunger and force it down into the toilet bowl over and over. “Sometimes I hate this job.”

“Few organizations work in isolation anymore. Money is money.”

“Who’s your handler?”

“Dai Qing.” Malik runs his hand down the steel of the stall. “She asked me to encourage you to see your mom.”

I laugh. “She did, did she? Are you sleeping with her? My family problems become your pillow talk?”

“Kim.” His dark eyes are pleading. “We gotta go back out there. I don’t want to leave it like this.”

“Who else could have killed Chad if it wasn’t Derry?”

Malik looks away from me, annoyance tinging his face. “Russians, maybe? The fight club brings in a lot of revenue. You’d need to know who owed who money, who thought eliminating Chad was the way to serve a blow to the O’Malleys. I’m assuming he was winning?”

“I got the impression you were winning or you were dead.”

“This isn’t part of the job. Checking into what happened to Chad isn’t your job.”

“No one else has done it.”

“Don’t compromise this mission for something that can’t be changed.”

I lift my chin, defiance spewing out of me. “Yeah, I get it. Chad’s dead either way. But he deserves to be avenged.” My voice is pitched low, and I point my finger. “I’mfinallyin a position to do that.”

“Kim.” There’s a warning in his voice.

In a surge of annoyance, I yank open the bathroom door and school my features. The bouncer is off to the side, ready to take me to Zhang’s office.

“Murray is such a good worker.” I force myself to use a chipper tone and point a thumb over my shoulder. “He should get a raise.” I swipe my drink off the bar before following the bouncer into the bowels of the club.

My escort chuckles. “Maybe he’ll get promoted out of unclogging toilets at some point. Not my decision.”

“Fair enough.” I gulp the whiskey. If Zhang has the paperwork, I want out of here as fast as I can. The fingers of my free hand slip inside my jacket and graze my gun.

When I reach the doorway of the office, Shen is behind his desk. It’s dark and dingy in here, and I understand why Finn might not have wanted to deal with them. Nothing about this place screams moneymaker.

When he looks at me, the sour expression on his face is a sharp contrast to his charming persona the other day when Finn was here. “Where’s Finn?”

“He didn’t come.” I’m at the edge of his desk, but I don’t sit down. This won’t take long. “Do you have the offer?”