“Bully for you.” Austin nodded toward the entrance. “Are you going to invite me in? Or should we discuss Ailish O’Kelly out here on the curb?”
Henrik turned to stone. Something sharp and unpleasant made itself known in Austin’s gut. Imagine that. For the first time in his illustrious career, he was feeling a definite pang of regret. He didn’t like using another man’s love interest to put him in a corner, but in this case, it was all he and Polly had to work with. On the train ride over, he’d consoled himself with the fact that the O’Kelly girl would never be affected by what took place. She would, however, guarantee Henrik’s cooperation. If the disgraced cop had been willing to end his career to protect her, it stood to reason he wouldn’t change his stripes now.
After a moment of debate, Henrik unlocked the entrance door and shoved it open with enough force for it to bang off the opposite wall. “This better not be about me sitting next to your girlfriend this morning,” Henrik gritted out as Austin passed him on his way into the well-lit hallway.
Austin gestured for Henrik to precede him up the stairs. That’s right, I know which floor you live on. “This isn’t about you sitting beside Polly, but I suggest you drop it. My temper is long, but nasty.” They stopped on the third-floor landing, where Henrik tossed an exasperated glance at him. Austin’s answering smile was forced. “I’ll admit I wanted to slit your throat during the meeting, but I’m feeling benevolent now that you’ve referred to her as my girlfriend.”
“Bully for me.” Henrik was doing a bang-up job of hiding his apprehension, but it was there in the tight lines around his eyes, his uncharacteristic lack of smoothness. When they entered the sparse one-bedroom apartment, Henrik dropped his keys onto the kitchen counter and propped his notoriously lethal fists on his hips. “What do you know about Ailish?”
Austin took a turn around the room, noting the stacked boxes in the corner. The lack of anything personal. Maybe they weren’t so different, after all. “I know you destroyed evidence to keep her out of prison.” He narrowed his eyes on the other man’s back. “I know she disappeared during your brief incarceration.” His words caused Henrik’s shoulder muscles to bunch. “Didn’t leave so much as a love note, did she? I know firsthand how cruel women can be.”
“Do the world a favor. Shut the fuck up.” Henrik prowled in a circle around the card table serving as a dining room. “Why are you coming to me with this? Just to show off?”
“I am a bit of a show-off,” Austin admitted. “But in this case, my—Polly is owed the accolades.” Pride worked its way past his defenses. Honestly, his defenses had all but deserted him, the cheeky fuckers. “We need your help, she and I. You’re going to give it to us.”
Henrik’s laughter boomed. “If I were holding a hose and you were on fire, I’d point it in the opposite direction.”
Granted. “What about Polly?”
“I liked her until a minute ago, when you so casually mentioned she’d hacked into my private business and obviously plans to use it against me.” Henrik crossed his arms over his chest, legs braced in a fighter’s stance. “I’m waiting to hear how.”
“Before you had your badge taken away, you won quite a lot of money for charity on the department’s behalf inside the ring.” Austin inclined his head. “You’re a boxer. We can use that talent to our advantage.”
“I was a boxer. I’m nothing now.”
God, Austin was starting to feel shabby about this whole business. “I hope you still have your old gloves lying around, because you’re going to need them.”
“You need me to fight?” Henrik’s expression was incredulous. “Why the hell would I do that?”
Austin took no pleasure in delivering the blow. “We know where Ailish O’Kelly is.”
For the second time since Austin arrived, he watched Henrik turn into a mammoth-sized sculpture. Unmoving, but intimidating nonetheless. There was more, though, lurking under the hardened surface. So much that it made Austin a little uncomfortable to witness it. In Henrik’s eyes lay bedlam. “Talk.”
With a nod, Austin turned one of the dining room chairs around and straddled it. “Until now, your fights were merely for fun. Charity bouts and the like.” He shook his head. “That won’t be the case this time.”
Polly had slept with the enemy.