Black And Blue (Quentin Black Mystery #5) Read Free Page B

‘useful’ there if it’s him...”
    “Someone was murdered , Miri. You want to stop investigating crimes because they might be inconvenient for your Uncle Lucky?”
    “It’s not Charles I’m worried about!” I snapped. Glancing at Black, I lowered my voice to a grumble. “Black says he’s not going after Lucky’s people, anyway. Not now.”
    “Because Lucky helped him out when he got shot?” Nick said.
    I shook my head. “No. Because Lucky’s my uncle. Black has these weird-ass ideas about seer family loyalty... especially older seer family members. He sees Lucky as the head of my family now, so more like a relative.”
    “Because he is a relative,” Black muttered.
    I gave Black a warning look, even as Nick exhaled in annoyance.
    “What the hell does that mean? Like a fucking seer mafia or something? So your uncle’s off the hook for drug dealing and human trafficking, just because he’s an in-law?”
    “Ask him. How the hell would I be able to decipher Black-brain?”
    Black turned his head slowly, giving me a faintly offended look.
    I ignored it, or tried to.
    “Well, whatever,” Nick said, still sounding annoyed. “It’s irrelevant for this case anyway. Black said this wasn’t Lucky, so he must have talked to him already. Also, the F.B.I. thinks these jokers are out of the Ukraine, according to Mozar... or maybe Western Europe... but not Moscow. And...” he added, sharper. “...By the way, I talked this over with Black already. I wasn’t aware I needed your permission to throw him consulting gigs, Miriam.”
    “Oh. I see. You don’t need my permission to hire him... but it’s perfectly okay for the two of you to conspire to not tell me about it. That’s just you being objective, right, Naoko? Or does that fall under ‘guy code’ or the ‘all women are crazy’ code?”
    After a longish pause, Nick sighed again.
    The next time he spoke, his voice was lower, and a lot more serious.
    “Look, Miriam. I know you’re not over Black being shot. He knows it, too. We both figured it was better to just move forward with it and let you get used to the idea while he’s on the job.”
    My jaw dropped.
    Before I could reply, Nick kept talking.
    “...From a case perspective, we also both figured it was better for Black to be involved personally than to let your uncle handle it, since we all know how that might turn out.”  
    Nick lowered his voice still more, like he was somewhere he didn’t want to be overheard.  
    “Miri, I talked to Hawking. He said there are none of the trademark ‘Archangel’ things. No weird symbols or beheadings. I even asked him about that group you contacted when Black was in Paris. You know. That guy, Alexei? The one who was way too interested in you...?”
    Next to me, Black stiffened.
    “...The point is,” Nick said. “It all came up a big, fat donut-hole. I don’t think there’s any connection between Black and this outfit, unless he knows the actual contractor.”
    Black continued to stare at me. “Alexei?” he mouthed. “What the fuck?”
    I’d known he was eavesdropping, but I gave him a pointed frown, anyway.
    Black had fewer ethical boundaries when it came to reading people.
    Like, zero, as far as I could tell.
    Nick was still talking. “...I’m telling you, you need to relax about this, Miri. Seriously. It looks like the hit was ordered by people who don’t know Black from a hole in the wall. And solving the murder could give Mozar a gold star with the F.B.I., so he’s liable to be a lot more friendly if Black helps him out.”
    I frowned, again glancing at Black.
    I could feel him gauging my reaction to Nick’s words.
    He and Nick really had talked this over, meaning how to handle the me side of this. Black really was worried about me freaking out.
    Nick continued, “...Hawking said the F.B.I. has been pretty close-mouthed, but he thinks it might be a turf war between two rival groups. There were rumblings via his own contacts that the