Page 82 of Lord of Passion

Good girl.

"It does look like her reports about killing Krasniqi are true," Alexsey says. "The whole oxygen tube maneuver? That was fucking art."

The microphone goes live, and Andrey strolls into the room, polished and terrifying in his hand-made Kiton suit. We look so much alike, but his face never deviates from its cold, set lines. He seats himself across from Caroline, who is looking at him with that same angry, twist to her mouth. Andrey stares at her for a long time, tapping his finger with a metronomic regularity on the metal table.

Caroline's eyes narrow as she puts on that cool, pleasant face I see when she's at work. I know what he's waiting for; that she'll crack and burst out babbling excuses, apologies, or tears. This goes on for two minutes. I know this because Roman has timed it

"Damn, that is one hell of a show in there," he says, shaking his head. "I've never seen someone hold out this long on Andrey."

"When we searched Johann's house, we found a good amount of intel on his plans. He'll switch some of his operations, of course, now that he knows he's been exposed. However, we've already shut down two of the groups he uses for robbery and chaos," I say. "There's no question, this asshole is Novikov."

"And Caroline is reporting to him." Dmitri’s arms are folded as he watches the staring match on the other side of the mirror.

I hate Dmitri, even though he's likely correct.

"We know that she went there willingly," I reluctantly agree. "However, Caroline is still holding on to her claim that she thought she could get him to leave Liria alone. She repeated the same story with all the same details yesterday when Liria visited my penthouse."

"I knew you'd have that recorded, of course," Alexsey says approvingly. "That definitely leaves room for doubt. Liria was so fucking incensed when she heard that we'd taken Caroline into custody."

Finally, at four minutes and fifteen seconds, Andrey speaks first. "I had thought you were brighter than this," he says. The weight of his judgment settles on Caroline, but she doesn't move a muscle.

"I thought I was doing the right thing," she says. "I was trying to protect Liria."

"If you were trying to protect Liria, it seems that you should've contacted Alexsey with a report of these alleged threats. Or perhaps even your own husband."

"I don't know if you've noticed this, being so high in your ivory tower, but the entire Bratva is under fire. It didn't seem like the time to ask someone to give me a hand with the crazy guy."

Andrey's finger never stops tapping, and she glances at it every now and then. It's annoying the fuck out of me; it's one of his favorite techniques. "You know what the Morozov Bratva does with traitors, don't you?"

My wife doesn't look angry, or frightened. She looks terribly sad. "I can tell my story a thousand times in the same order with all the right details," she says. "But you're going to kill me anyway. You're going to use the excuse that because my brothers were traitors - which they were - that this clearly shows that I'm a traitor to the Morozovs, too. I'm not. But at least it'll ease your conscience when you pull the trigger."

The others are silent, watching the conversation and I absently rub the heel of my hand over my chest. It shouldn't be aching.

This is the right course of action.

The questions go on for another hour. Andrey circles back to earlier questions, rephrasing them in a slightly different way, she sticks to her points and he can't shake her loose. He casuallyalludes to torture and all the different ways that we have used to get traitors to talk in the past, and she just looks more heartbroken, rather than terrified. Toward the end, Andrey doesn't say anything, staring at her for another five minutes with that goddamn finger still tapping.

Without saying anything else, he gets up and leaves the room. Caroline looks at the mirror and it's obvious she knows someone's behind it. A tear trickles down her cheek and she turns her head away from us, wiping it off her face.

"Extremely stubborn," Andrey says, putting his hands in his pockets as he looks at Caroline disapprovingly. "I can't tell you if she is a traitor, it's very clear that she believes she did the right thing."

We all watch Caroline. Her face is still averted and her hand goes up to quickly wipe away another tear.

"I believe her." It bursts out of me, unplanned, but when the words are out of my mouth, I believe them, absolutely. "I don't believe that she betrayed us. She killed Dritan, that's a strong point in her favor."

"It's not enough," Dmitri says evenly. "The main point here is that she still went to him willingly. She flew into Boston and abandoned her security."

My eyes never leave my wife on the other side of the glass. "She didn't betray us, I know it. She's loyal and I shouldn't have treated her the way I did."

"You can claim this without any proof?" Andrey says. He's not angry. His tone is mildly curious.

I shake my head. "I believe her. I should not have doubted her."

Roman and Dmitri exchange glances, but Alexsey grins, slapping my shoulder. "I believe her, too."

Andrey looks disappointed with the both of us and checks his watch. "I have a court date," he says, and leaves another word.

Dmitri searches my face and finally lets out a long sigh. "If you believe her, then we have to as well," he says. "But I am placing a separate tail on her and her security."