The gun is just backup. Just insurance in case the worst-case scenario happened. In case someone found the house before I was ready.
But why wouldn’t he tell me?
“Now, Nika.” Max’s address pierces through my spiraling thoughts, his voice low and lethal. “It’s question and answer time.”
Chapter 21
Max
Nika’s off guard, shaken by the sight of the Makarov. I could threaten her. Act like the monster. Except even now, she’s defiant, staring at the gun in my hand as if she doubts reality.
Threats don’t intimidate people like her. People who’ve constructed walls so high that they’ve forgotten what it’s like to be touched, to be challenged by an equal, let alone a better.
I unlock Nika’s handcuffs and yank her from the bed. Acting quickly to keep her off-balance, I wrestle her arms behind her back and zip-tie them again before I push her out of her room.
The heat of the fireplace will help with what I’m about to do.
She barely has an opportunity to protest when I plunk her down in the armchair closest to the fire.
“Tell me about this place.” Starting off with simple and mundane questions will get her used to answering when the time comes for the more pressing queries. “Why here? Why a fortress on a mountain?”
She blinks, subtly eyeing the weapon I’m still wielding. “Privacy.”
“From whom?”
“Everyone.” She rotates her shoulders in an effort to get comfortable with her arms behind her back.
My ankle begs for reprieve, so I pull the other chair around and sit close enough that our knees touch. “How long have you lived here?”
She shrugs. “A while.”
“With Dimitri?” That’s another throwaway question since I already know the answer.
Her jaw tightens just a fraction, and I know I’ve struck a nerve.
I’ll keep digging. “What is he to you?”
She stays silent, her face carefully blank.
I’m starting to think if this woman just talked, we could come to some kind of understanding. Instead, she’s full of her own self-importance and grand schemes.
“What kind of sick, perverted psycho do you have to be to think up the treasure hunt you’ve had us running for the last year?”
She kicks out, aiming for my bad ankle. I lift my leg so her foot whistles through empty air. Then I lean forward, invading her space. She rears back just as fast.
A sudden idea hits me.
Maybe it’s exhaustion, or the days of watching her body respond despite her mind’s resistance. Could just be simple desperation. But I understand traditional interrogation won’t work with someone so fanatical. It would only reinforce her fucked-up reasoning for hating the Bratva.
Time to try a different tactic. “We’re going to play a game, Nika.”
A shiver starts at her shoulders and travels down her spine.
Before she has time to react, I drop to my knees in front of her chair. This way, I can control her legs and torture her at the same time.
Her breath hitches. Under my hands, both knees jerk involuntarily.
“I’m going to ask you questions.” My fingertips brush the waistband of her leggings. “Every time you don’t answer, I’m going to edge you.”
