“Yes, but she’d have had to cut through Shear Woods.” Foregoing his shoes, Anton stalked in through the back door of his house, obviously off to give AJ a piece of his mind about walking in the dark though the woods.
Maxim tugged on his own shirt and shook his hair out of his eyes. “He’s too hard on her.” He hurried after Anton to soften whatever harsh words were sure to be thrown AJ’s way.
Emin watched his brothers disappear into the house before he turned back to Danil. “I don’t know what to think about this woman asking questions.”
Danil shrugged. “I’ll figure out what she’s about and I’ll handle it.”
“Just like always.”
“Just like always,” Danil affirmed, a little smile on his face.
“That wasn’t a compliment,” Emin said, before he turned to go into the house himself.
He left Danil scowling out at the dark night, the ghost of a kiss on his lips.
CHAPTER TWO
Dora grinned at the night as she tossed one leg over the fence and then the other. “Damn,” she muttered as her pant leg snagged and tore a small hole. “These were good pants.”
But she didn’t let it slow her down. Despite a few setbacks, namely two arrests, she was finally making some headway.
For the first time in the four years since her father had passed away, she felt like she was in the right place at the right time. She had some leads, some momentum, some ideas. For the most part, her old panache was back. And that felt good. Like going for a stroll after getting a cast removed.
She jumped down, quiet as a bird, and landed in a three-pointed stance on the ground. She knew there were motion sensor security lights about fifty feet down; she’d cased the place out earlier. So she treaded softly in the opposite direction, knowing there was an outbuilding back in the woods on the edge of the property. Based on what she’d seen before, that’s where the real magic was done.
Dora froze for just a second as an owl hooted in the trees overhead. The noise skittered down her spine like ice, but she grinned with the thrill of it. She didn’t scare easily. And when she did, she liked it.
As she crept along the edge of the fence, keeping in the shadows, Dora realized that it was the second time in one night that she was feeling that zipping thrill. The first had been standing in the Malashovik’s driveway, with 6 plus feet of 200-pound man leaning into her. Good-smelling man, she recalled. Like pine trees and morning, before the sun burns the mist off the world.
But ornery. Jeez. He had not wanted her around. Except for when he’d leaned down like he was going to lap her up like ice cream. But Dora knew that had started out as a way to distract her. And boy had it worked. She was only glad they had been interrupted or else the two of them might still be distracted, tangled up in the sheets somewhere.
And as nice as a little playtime might have been, Dora had a job to do. Some puzzle pieces to put together. She was about 90% sure that Danil and his family were one of those puzzle pieces. So, it was probably better that they didn’t get involved. Objectivity and all.
Not that Dora ever really had a problem staying objective about the men she slept with. They were a means to an end for her. Hopefully a really fun or interesting or talented means to an end. But a means to an end no matter what. There had only ever been one person in her life that Dora had loved: her father. And after he’d passed, she’d made herself a little deal that she wasn’t going down the whole love road again. Not without some real nice insurance. Like a signed and certified contract from God himself saying she wouldn’t be putting that person in the ground any time soon.
She was a strong person, both emotionally and physically. In fact, creeping up on the edge of the outbuilding, Dora scaled the brick wall and crouched on the roof as effortlessly as a monkey. But even she had limits. She wasn’t going to get tangled up in somebody right now. She had her job to do, a mystery to solve, and that was as good as rose petals down the aisle for her.
She put every other thought out of her mind as she crawled along the edge of the roof. She knew that the lights were off inside the building, with the exception of some security lights burning low over the doors. If there was anyone inside, she didn’t think that they were working right now. So, gripping hard on the downspout of the roof, Dora leaned over the edge and slid her head down to peer through the window.
There were test tubes and beakers. Syringes tossed haphazardly over the gleaming metal counters. A layman might have thought it was some kind of meth lab, but Dora knew better. She saw the leather restraints on the walls. The scratch marks. The clumps of thick fur on the ground. With a sick twist of her stomach, she saw the cattle prods on the wall. It matched all the other sites she’d found over the past year. An animal testing facility. But they weren’t testing makeup or a new kind of lotion on the poor creatures. They were testing something else, something that Dora hadn’t been able to figure out yet. But it looked damn close to torture to her.