Page 79 of Lord of Justice

"I'm happy to," the man says. "But I can tell you there's nothing to find."

"Thank you for clarifying," Andrey says. "Are you finding your new vacation home enjoyable?"

The other voice brightens considerably. "Yes! Thank you again. My wife couldn't believe that we could get a place on Rhode Island."

"Excellent," Andrey says. "Goodbye for now."

I should storm in there. I should scream and throw one of his bronze paper weights at his head. But if I take my hand off this wall, I'll collapse into a heap. I try to focus on staying upright instead of the fact that my heart just cracked wide open.

Heput those charges in my record.

Andrey must hear me wheezing, he walks out of his office and a look of concern crosses his face when he sees me against the wall. "Are you all right?" he asks, moving swiftly and trying to pick me up. I shove my way out of his arms. "What's wrong? Are you injured? Are you sick?"

"Don't fucking bother." I don't recognize my voice. It's flat, lifeless. "You faked all those charges. The extra felony counts, attacking a police officer, and the- the attemptedmurder.Was it really worth it for you to do that to me?"

A shadow seems to settle over his face, like a cloud over the moon. "It is hard for you to understand this," he says. "But it wasn't personal. It was simply necessary to get the job done."

His sheer heartlessness is breathtaking.

"You came into that interrogation room, looked at me chained to the table and you thought, ‘Oh, good. All my problems are solved.’ How can you notseehow fucking evil this is? You lied toRoman and Violet, to Dmitri, yourPakhan.You told them you were saving me from those fucking charges andyou'rethe one who added them to the warrant!"

I'm going around in circles now, like some sort of hellish carousel that I can't seem to get off of. "How could you do that to me?" I repeat. I'm not crying. I feel kind of numb.

"Iris." He steps forward, his hand reaching out and I pull away before he can touch me. "You were the one who put yourself in that jail, not me. Take some responsibility for that, at least. But I think we can both agree that thishasbeen for the best."

My jaw drops. "I don't know how you can keep making this worse, but you are. Yes, the arrest was my fault. But all the sick shit you added, that could have put me behind bars fortwenty years!"

"I never would have let that happen," he says. "Even if the chargeswerereal."

"Even if- even if you had maybe told me later and asked for forgiveness, if you had been honest about it maybe I could –" Wiping my forehead, I'm surprised to see how sweaty I am. "But you were never going to tell me, were you? You were just going to savethatportion of our meet cute for the rest of our lives."

Andrey stares at me, his face cold, and composed.There's something in his eyes, though, I haven't seen before. Could that possibly be remorse? No. Andrey doesn't give a shit about anything. Specifically, not about me.

"Oh fuck." I wipe my forehead again. "I feel so stupid, so trusting."

"I never intended to hurt you," he says, woodenly.

"Oh,that'srich." I slap the wall, letting out a high, hysterical giggle. "You never meant to hurt me," I repeat. "I shouldn't be making this kind of fuss if you didn'tintendto hurt me, huh, Andrey? It just never occurred to you to imagine what it would do to me. After all, you were getting what you wanted.” I shake my head, backing away. “Ihateyou.” I race back down the stairs.

"Iris! We are not done talking. Let me explain –"

I slam the elevator button for the floor below me. I know I'm not getting out of here without a bodyguard, but I need to go now. I step into the elevator and as the doors close, I see Andrey coming down the stairs.

"Come back, let's talk –"

I don't have to hear his horrible, heartless voice any more, his indifferent excuses. His complete inability to see that what he did was so fucking cruel. I text Melina and she's already waiting for me. She frowns, reaching out for me before shestops herself. I must look worse than I thought.

"Do you need to see a doctor?" she asks quietly.

I laugh bitterly. "What I need is for the last four months to never have happened." Her beautiful, sharp face softens slightly.

"Then we'll take a drive and you'll tell me what you need."

Chapter Thirty-Eight

In which Andrey is getting the sense that he might have fucked up.

Andrey…