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He gives a half-gracious, half-mocking bow. “It’s all I need.”
“We’re going to my office.” I gesture to the door. “You lead the way. And keep your hands where I can see them.”
Rodion walks in front of us with his hands loose and open at his sides. I should pat him down, but it doesn’t matter. If he so much as flinches towards his pocket, I’ll kill him.
Piper is a ball of tension against me. “Are you sure this is safe?”
“You’re safe. I’ll protect you, Piper.”
“I don’t mean for me,” she whispers, her arm looping around mine. “What about you?”
If she is playing the role of my loving girlfriend, she’s doing a thorough job. There’s no one around and she is still pretending to be worried about me.
But I’m not pretending. I haven’t been for a while.
And I have no clue how to tell her that I would put myself in danger one thousand times over if it meant making sure she was safe.
86
TIMOFEY
In my office, Rodion looks much less relaxed than he did when we were surrounded by witnesses. I can see a sheen of sweat on his forehead.
I shut the door behind me and check my watch. “Your five minutes have started.”
“Right. Okay.” He takes a deep breath. “I had this all planned out, but now, I’m not really sure where to start.”
“The beginning is a good place.”
He chuckles and runs a hand over his neck. “You’d think, but… I’ll start with the most recent thing first. I know you didn’t try to have me killed.”
I can’t help but roll my eyes. “I already told you that.”
“I should have listened when I showed up that night and you said you didn’t know about it,” he says. “I was just so fucking mad. The guy told me you sent him, and I believed him. It was a good setup.”
I shake my head. “It wasn’t that good. Someone wanted you dead. If that failed, they wanted to turn us against each other. It was transparent to me.”
“Because you knew the truth. You knew you didn’t do it. I didn’t know that.” He glances sidelong at me. “Kind of like the way you still think I might have killed Emily, even though I didn’t.”
I grit my teeth. “Four minutes.”
“Shit,” he mutters. “Okay. So, yeah, I’m sorry I accused you of trying to kill me. I know it wasn’t you, but I’ve been trying to figure out who it was.”
“If you find them, give them my number. I might be in the market for a new hitman in three minutes and counting.”
He chuckles nervously. “I’m also here to tell you, firmly and finally, that I did not kill Emily.”
I hold up a hand to stop him. “Go talk to Sergey about this if you want someone to listen. He’s your little cheerleader. I’m fucking tired of talking about it. The truth will come out eventually. When it does—”
“You’ll realize I’m telling the truth,” Rodion says. “I still have three minutes, right?”
“Two and a half.”
“Then please let me use them.” He waits for my response. When I say nothing, he continues. “My mom died a year ago. It really tore me up, you know?”
I do know. It’s the one and only time I’ve ever seen Rodion close to tears.
His mother was young. She had him when she was a teenager, so her death was unexpected. I could sympathize with how he was feeling. He sent money back home to her every month like clockwork. She’d just bought a new car.
