Page 104 of The Arrangement

“Relax. We’re not here for Anton,” Danover said, not even bothering to turn around.

“And I don’t care,” Ivan barked.

“Miss Carducci … the call, that’s all we want to know.”

Viviana hid the shaking of her hands under thick blankets.

“There’s nothing to tell. Roman made his point clear. I hung up the phone.”

The stare-off that commenced between the two agents and Viviana lasted longer than she was comfortable with. Neither of them were budging and clearly she wasn’t either. If they knew she was lying, they didn’t call her on it.

“Your fiancé …”

Ivan huffed under his breath. “Get out.”

Todd lifted a single shoulder as he asked, “Do you really know the man you’re marrying?”

“Probably better than you,” she retorted hotly. “If you want to throw out some Freudian worthy bullshit about how I must have daddy issues because I’m marrying a man just like Roman, then you can go to hell. Yes, Agent Todd, I’m very aware of whom I lie down beside every night. And I wouldn’t ask for anyone different.”

“He’s a dangerous man, Viviana.”

Viviana shrugged. If they thought that bothered her, she had a news flash coming.

“Funny, the last thing Anton ever makes me feel is unsafe.”

When the agents were gone and the door was closed, Ivan leaned against it and sighed with an exhausted noise. While Viviana was relieved they were gone, she was also waiting for the backlash from her lawyer.

“I’m sorry, Ivan.”

“Don’t be,” he muttered. “We figured they’d be around.”

“We?”

“Anton and me. Chatted about it for a little while. Nothing you say really affects him in regards to Roman, but if you don’t want to talk, you’re not required to. I wasn’t about to let the bastards bully you into it.”

“I’m hiding knowledge of a crime. That’s punishable by law.”

“You didn’t hang up the phone, did you?”

“No,” she whispered. “Dad had this new conference phone. Didn’t matter how many times we told him he needed to hit the end call button after he hung the receiver up, he never remembered. Sonny was there, but he didn’t know Dad had been on the phone with me …”

“Sonny, what the fuck are you doing? You don’t realize—”

“All you had to do was kill the bitch, Roman. That was it,” Sonny spat.

“And the baby, too, right? Because let’s not forget her. You gonna fucking kill me, now? Your own brother? Blood never mattered in this life. But unlike you, I followed that creed. Come on then … do it.”

“Turn around.”

“No,” Roman said.

Viviana blinked out of the memory, hearing the snap of the handgun’s chamber being loaded in the background of her mind. She’d never forget that sound. And that’s all it was … just a fucking sound.

That sound brought death. Always.

“Viviana?”

“He shot him in the back of the head, Ivan.”