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“So, what should we start with?” I ask them. “Should we get straight to the point?”
“Is your throat hurting?” Agent Nelson asks. “We can do this in writing if you wish.”
“My voice is always like this. Don’t worry about it.”
“It’s not a…result from the last sixteen months, is it?”
“Nope.” I pop the ‘p’. “Always been this way.”
Nelson smiles and flips his notepad open. He clicks his pen and nods, but it’s Detective Turner who talks.
“Viktor Volkov is an extremely dangerous man,” she starts. “He has been on the FBI’s Most Wanted list for a long time. His brother Aleksei too.”
My lack of acknowledgment makes her carry on. She wants to hear me talk; I can feel it.
“Viktor is the eldest brother, is that right?”
“That’s right,” I confirm. As if they didn’t know.
“He’s the head of the family, right?”
“Right.” Sliding a hand under the covers, I pinch myself. This doesn’t feel real. Yesterday, I was at the Bratva compound. Today I’m being interrogated by two cops who think I’m dumb as fuck.
“Which makes Aleksei…what? His right-hand man?”
I shrug like I don’t know. “I would hope you’d have done your homework better than that if you wish to arrest them,” I tell her.
She smiles tightly at me. Her eyes dart to my arm that’s under the covers as if I’m holding a knife there. This woman doesn’t trust me. Her body tells me I’m an accomplice rather than a victim.
“Our ‘homework’,” she quotes me, “has told us Aleksei handles a different side of the business than Viktor. While the eldest brother is the head of everything, there is something he left to Aleksei.” She pauses for effect, or maybe to see if I’ll tell her what it is. “Human trafficking,” she finally adds. “Is that correct?”
“Why do you ask questions you already know the answer to?” I inquire with the same suspicion she has toward me.
“I’m trying to get a picture of which brother you had to deal with,” she explains. “Who would be charged with what…should we find them.” My eyes dart to Special Agent Nelson, scribbling on his notepad like a secretary taking minutes from an important meeting. I look back at Turner. She seems to be waiting for something from me. I give her nothing, forcing her to talk some more.
“See, we know who took you. Our problem is—”
“You don’t know where to find them,” I cut her off. I shift slightly, and my thigh screams painfully despite the meds. “We can cut this short if you want. I don’t know where the Volkov brothers are hiding, either. I don’t know where I was, and I don’t know how to contact them. The Volkovs call themselves wolves. The truth is they are ghosts. Their dad was a ghost and so was their granddaddy. They hide, and they hide well. I can’t help you.” I feel like I have to add, “I’m sorry.” And I even make it sound genuine.
Turner sighs and goes for a different tactic. “I was told you didn’t want to do a rape kit.”
I almost choke on my own spit. She really is trying to get me.
“Protecting an abductor is very common after such a long time as a captive.”
Fucking hell, she’s going for blunt now.
“And that’s how you get them to feel safe?” I shake my head. “Believe me, no one hates the fuckers more than I do. I’m just trying to be realistic, if you don’t mind. Finding them is an impossible task. They will show up when they want to be found.”
“And do you think they will likely come for you? To attempt to take you back? To contact you?”
“No,” I lie.
They let the silence stretch for a long time before glancing at each other.
“All right,” Nelson finally says. “We’re going to need any details you can remember.”
Fuck.
