on a good thing by never trying to join up with them.”
“What do they pay you? A million a year? That’s not worth my talents,” he retorted. “It’s not worth yours, either, but if the last nagini wants to sell herself short, then what business of it is mine?”
“Exactly. It’s not,” I replied, hating how he brought up what I was. Some days, I felt like I couldn’t escape the fact I was the last female of my kind. I sure as fuck didn’t need Sinclair reminding me. I didn’t need anyone reminding me. “Get your business done, if you can, then get out of my city, Sinclair. I don’t like your kind here.” I finished my scotch and started toward the door. I only made it two steps before he and I were shoulder to shoulder, looking in opposite directions.
“And what kind would that be?” he asked softly, leaning down to invade my space further as I tried to pass. “The kind that wins?”
“The kind that makes me want to sink to your level,” I hissed back, stopping to face him again.
“We both know you already have,” he taunted. “I’ll be out of Phoenix soon enough, though. Mygi gave me some private information they weren’t willing to share with the public. I’ll be out of your hair before the week’s over. Stay, enjoy your little shithole bar, and have another drink. I’m not staying.”
“Why did you even come here?” I demanded, not moving.
“To see how my favorite Executioner was doing,” he said with that cold smile he was known for. “I figured if you saw me here first, you would be less inclined to try to kill me on the streets and lose your job. Consider it a courtesy call. I’m in Phoenix for work and would like to finish it and leave as soon as possible.” He turned and walked out of the bar, leaving me standing alone, everyone watching me.
“Kaliya…” Paden’s warning tone came out. “Maybe you do need to just head home and stay out of this.”
“Funny. I was thinking I needed to join this little hunt for a stupid human. Ten million is good money.” I grinned over my shoulder. I never gave Sinclair a free pass. He was in my city, and I was going to win this time. Less than twenty-four hours back in Phoenix, and things were getting interesting. This seemed like it was going to be the most fun the supernaturals of Phoenix were going to see for at least a decade.
Sinclair, The Board, Mygi Pharmaceuticals, and one human stuck in the middle of it.
“You could lose your job,” Paden reminded me, walking close to say it under his breath. “Kaliya, they warned you off Sinclair fifteen years ago, the last time Cassius was able to get him to stand in front of the Tribunal.”
“He’s in my city,” I reminded my friend. “He wants to play? We’ll play.”
I walked out. I didn’t intend to follow Sinclair, but I needed to get home so I could start hacking into Mygi’s system. I needed to know what he knew if I had any chance of beating him to the prize. If this Raphael Alvarez knew anything important to my personal case, I couldn’t let that fucking vampire make him disappear.
4
Chapter Four
Once I was home, I locked myself into my secure secondary office and booted up my rarely used work computer. It was a beast of a machine that could crack damn near anything, and I hoped it was up to the task of helping me get into Mygi’s private servers. I was half decent at breaking into email and bank accounts when I needed to fish for information about a bounty.
Sinclair was right in a lot of ways. I was suited to the role of an Investigator. The Tribunal had two divisions, Investigators and Executioners. One division was both a cop and a lawyer, building a case and bringing a supernatural to trial. The Tribunal was the judge and jury. And then there was my job, the Executioner. It was an open secret that I was good enough for both divisions, but it was against Tribunal policy to allow someone to be both. What I did in my free time was my business, but any case I tried to build was usually handed over to tasked Investigators to finish. I was normally fine with that unless it was personal.
“All right, Mygi. Let’s see what you’re hiding,” I said to the screen as several