Page 76 of Sinner's Sacrifice

“May I come in?” He asked with a formality she rarely saw in him.

“You do own the place.” She backed up to sit on the bed.

He stood in front of her for a couple of long seconds before sitting down on the floor with his back to the wall, facing her.

It surprised her a little. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy who’d cop a squat on the carpet in his expensive suit.

He had a strange smile on his face. It almost looked...sardonic. As if he were feeling guilty about something. Given what she knew about him and what he could do when he decided you needed to die, there was lots he could feel guilty about.

“Why did those men try to kidnap me?”

He opened his mouth, but she waved him off. “And don’t give me that bullshit about all your employees being important to you, or you feeling some kind of attraction to me at the moment. You could have practically any woman you want.”

It wasn’t until the words were out of her mouth, and her face heated to broiling, that she realized how that might sound to him. Like she wanted to be that woman.

The guilt melted off his face, leaving a shark-like smile filled with enough hunger to make her shiver. “You’re not like any other woman I’ve ever met.”

That line was so old, it had lost its teeth. “I so do not want to hear your usual bullshit.”

“You think I’m lying?” He tilted his head to one side. “Why would I bother?”

“I don’t know.” The words tore out of her at a near shout. “I’ve never understood why you decided to save me in the first place, let alone give me a job, and help me recover.” She threw her hands in the air. “You make no sense.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “I’ve been trying to keep you out of my family business, but today showed me how ineffectual that goal is.”

“Family business? Your criminal operations?” She shook her head and hand at him. “No, thanks.”

“At one time we had many criminal operations, but not so much anymore,” he told her with a half grin. “In fact, all of my employees work hard to ensure we’re following the laws of the countries we operate in. We’ve diversified and gone global. Since the late 1980s.”

Yeah, right. “I’m not a judge or a cop. You know the players, the things they’re doing, and I watched you kill more than one man.”

“I only kill in self-defense. It’s not my problem so many bad guys find me offensive. Besides, it’s good business to know who is doing what in a city as large as NYC.”

“Okay, fine. Then...what is your family business?”

“You know that clinic we went to?”

“Yeah.”

“That building is much more than a clinic. It’s also a research facility doing important medical research into how the human immune system does what it does, or doesn’t do, depending on a person’s genetic code. They’re researching pharmaceuticals that could treat people with a variety of auto-immune disorders.”

“Oh, no wonder the doctor seemed a little rusty with his bedside manner.”

“Indeed. Well, they ran the general tests they do, and discovered that you have a relatively rare set of genes that makes you particularly resilient to a specific class of viruses.”

“Wait, they tested my blood without my permission?”

“You gave your permission to test your blood, remember? They must have done a few extra ones.”

“That’s an ethical breach of conduct.”

“Yes, yes, we’ll behead them later.” He waved that off like it was inconsequential. “I’m trying to explain our precarious situation.”

“You’re a shitty explainer.”

He laughed, and it changed his whole face. His whole body. The starch that seemed to hold him stiffly erect most of the time melted off him. His eyes lit up, and it made him look younger, full of energy. Need hit her in the solar plexus.

She wanted him. Despite the danger he presented, the knowledge it could go nowhere, and her own vow to stay unentangled, she wanted him.