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For her, it’s not going to be, not for a while anyway. She’s going to have to go back to a man that she rightly hates, and get the information I need. And I can’t be upset about it—I have no reason to be.
“He said he loved me,” Lidiya whispers, her voice trembling along with her chin, as if she’s suddenly trying very hard not to cry. “I can’t—Levin, please. I just can’t.”
The sound of my name on her lips makes me go very still, my cock twitching in my jeans all over again. It sounds so good, almost musical, and it’s all too easy to imagine her crying out that name in bed, if I stripped her down and pinned her against those crisp white sheets, if I spread her slender thighs with my hands and discovered at length what she tastes like. If I found out whether she would moan my name or scream it, or better yet, both.
For fuck’s sake, pull yourself together.
I need to get laid, and soon. But for now, I need to convince Lidiya to do as I’m asking her, or we’re both going to have bigger problems.
“I understand,” I say calmly. “But all of that doesn’t matter. Grisha is involved in some very bad things, Lidiya. And we need proof of those things, so that we can take care of the matter.”
“Find someone else.” She juts her pointed chin outwards determinedly, staring me down. “I can’t do it. I can’t go back to him, pretend to love and want him. I won’t debase myself for you, beg a man who lied to me to come back to me. For fuck’s sake, I don’t want to do that to his wife. She doesn’t deserve this either.”
“It has to be you.”
“Why?” Lidiya’s voice rises, thin and high and plaintive. “If he fucked me, I’m sure he fucked others. Get some other girl to do it.”
“He has,” I admit, though I know it won’t improve matters. “But you’re the only one he carried on an actual relationship with, treated you as a girlfriend. I think, in his own twisted way, he does love you. Plenty of men who keep mistresses love them, Lidiya—”
“That’s not love.” Her voice is sharp and pointed, like a knife driving home a point.
“I would be inclined to agree with you.” I shrug. “But it doesn’t matter, Lidiya. What matters is thathebelieves he loves you, and that he will take you back. It has to be you. It would be too difficult to try to arrange another girl to start a relationship with him from scratch, to get the information.”
“What about his wife? She must be pissed at him too, after—”
“We’ve evaluated that option,” I say calmly. “It’s the opinion of my boss that his wife won’t turn, and may even be involved in his business affairs herself.”
“Well, I won’t help you either.” Lidiya crosses her arms over her chest, going from tearful to defiant again in the space of a moment. “I’m not going back to him. Just the thought of him makes me sick. I was falling for him too, and heliedto me. Ihatehim now.”
I was falling for him too.Those words shouldn’t strike a chord in me, shouldn’t make me feel a hot flush of jealousy at the idea of Lidiya telling Grisha Fedorov that she loves him, that she wants to be with him forever. I shouldn’t give a single goddamn about how she feels about him one way or another, so long as the mission is completed.
I don’t know how this girl has gotten in my head and under my skin so quickly, but I need to fix it, and fast. Vladimir won’t have patience with that kind of nonsense, and I can’t risk fucking up. I’ve risen quickly in the ranks of the syndicate, but I’ve seen others fall just as fast.
“You will.” I let out a long breath. “Don’t make this difficult, Lidiya—”
“You can’t make me.” She sounds stubbornly petulant now, and it grates on me. “What are you going to do, hold me prisoner in this room until I agree? It won’t work, and it won’t get you information on Grisha.”
“You’re right that it won’t get us that information,” I agree. “But you’ll capitulate quickly, I promise you that. There’s no need to drag this out though—”
“I said no.” She pushes herself up from the bed, standing up as if to walk past me. “I’m leaving now—”
I stand up just as quickly, moving between her and the door. “No, you’re not. If you refuse, we’ll keep you here, and freeze your accounts.”
She goes very still, looking up at me. “What? You can’t do that—”
“I assure you, we can.”
“A private detective agency can’t—” Her eyes go wide and round as it hits her then—I might not have admitted out loud what I’m a part of, but it dawns on her that it’s much more complex than just a private investigation agency. “What the fuck is this?”
“You don’t need to know more,” I say carefully. “But you will not leave this room, Lidiya, until you agree. And if you don’t, we will freeze your accounts, and the money you send to your dearbabushkawon’t reach her. It won’t take all that long before she’s unable to buy food, or her medicine, and soon enough things will start getting cut off. Lights, gas, even her apartment itself. And if you still refuse—”
I hadn’t thought Lidiya’s eyes could get any wider, but they do. She swallows hard, and I see that tremor in her chin again, though she hides it well.
“You’re a monster,” she whispers. “A monster—”
“No, I’m not.” I shake my head. “I don’t want to do any of this, and I certainly don’t enjoy it. But I assure you, Lidiya—my boss is. And he will do every single thing I’ve threatened—and more.”
I look down at her, hoping that she sees how serious I am.
