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Aleksei staredat the corner where his mom, sister, and Harley huddled. The low light barely reached them; they were more shadow than substance. They must have been here for hours. Bound by hand and foot, terror on his mom and sister’s faces, determination on Harley’s, Aleksei experienced the deepest, most painful guilt he could imagine. This was all his fault. He shouldn’t have kept anything back. He should have told Isabelle aboutImperiyaand Olenska’s wild and destructive plan to end Russia’s government by blowing up the Kremlin and the KBG. At least the current government wasn’t as reckless as Olenska, mad with his wealth and his power, believing he could rule Russia better than they could. Aleksei should have realized that it was a precursor to World War III. His regret cut him deep, knowing that he’d dragged his family and Harley into his own disillusionment and misery. He should be the one to pay the consequences, not them.
Along with the guilt was the kind of terror for his family and the woman he…loved. Oh, damn. He was just realizing this now when it was the end of the line for him, her, and any happiness they could have carved out of this hell.
It was freezing in this empty cargo space where he was painfully bound to a chair by his wrists and ankles. He had no doubt they would all die here, and it was his fault.
The door opened and Leonid strode in with Anya on his heels. She looked different from when she’d assaulted his yacht. Her dark hair was loose and falling over one shoulder. Her dark blue slacks and turtleneck belonged at a ski lodge in the Alps. A Dr. Jekyll to her Ms. Hyde he’d met in the chopper. He’d accepted her threats as truth. He couldn’t imagine what was worse than murder.
Leonid stood by the entrance as she walked up to Aleksei, tried for grace and failed, her moves too rigid, methodical. She completely ignored his family and Harley like they didn’t exist. He had a feeling she was going to act as bad cop and there wasn’t going to be any good cop.
“Aleksei,” she said in greeting. “I hope our hospitality is up to your exacting standards.”
“You wouldn’t know or understand hospitality if it bit you on the ass.” He noticed how her hand caressed the long knife sheathed at her hip. Her face hardened, her eyes narrowing. “What do you want from me, Anya?” His gaze flicked to Leonid.
Her gaze sharpened on him. She didn’t like him using her given name. “Right to the point, no messing around. All right. We want to know what you told the Americans.”
“Everything my father knew, I knew, and I gave them all the evidence they need to fry both of you.”
“You never understood what we stood for.”
“What you stood for? Youmurderedan American ambassador in cold blood, broke the rules of diplomacy, and crossed a line that should have never been crossed.”
She shrugged. “It had to be crossed. He was a threat.”
“Werehis childrena threat! Youmurderedchildren and their mother! Was that part of yourbarbaricmessage? You might want to change the world, but no one is ever going to let you take a pass over their deaths! You saw their tenacity and relentless pursuit of Bin Laden. For ten years! The Americans will never stop hunting you.”
She stared at him, arching a thin brow. “We have our plans for the Americans. They will not ever pose a threat to Russia again.”
Something inside him went still as glass, and his gut turned over. “You’re both mad if you think you can poke that bear and not suffer the repercussions of them and their allies. How do you think you’re going to feed the people of Russia, or what happens when the oil runs out? They will attack you in ways that will decimate Russia. You and your father will have accomplished nothing except World War III and the second fall.”
She stepped closer, dismissing everything he said. She wasn’t affected, so smug and confident in her delusions of grandeur. “What else did you tell them?”
Giving the Olenskas even a shred of information regarding the missiles was dangerous. They would be forewarned. He didn’t doubt the capability of the SEALs or the FBI, or Isabelle.
“That was it. Just the information about your hand in the deaths of the Ogdens.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. He’d only been forced to confess to his duplicity. He hadn’t actually told Isabelle anything.
She walked the small circumference around his chair, and his neck prickled when she stopped behind him. He could smell her cloying perfume and she wouldn’t be at all tolerant of him stalling. He jerked when her cold fingers touched the back of his neck, then the chilling tip of the blade.
“One little push and I sever your brain cord.”
“Anya,” her name reverberated in the cold, empty room as empty as that bitch’s heart.
The knife disappeared and she walked back in front of him. “I will kill everyone you love, Aleksei.” For the first time, her hollow eyes turned toward his family and Harley.
“I’m telling you I didn’t say anything, but in my blind bitterness, I thought only of the current government toppling. I didn’t want to think of the consequences of what would happen if you and your sadistic father took control, but I didn’t expect that to really happen.” He hoped his bluff would work. Sacrificing anyone he loved was unthinkable.
She slapped him viciously. The sting exploded through his cheek and made his eyes water. He turned his head and met her gaze. He’d sworn his allegiance to the Americans. He considered himself an American now. Part of the people who had forged a nation in democracy, not without their own shedding of their blood. He would not betray them again.
She let out a breath that didn’t seem to calm the rage in her eyes. She stared, her fists white-knuckled, then suddenly she was inches from him.
And for the first time, she smiled.
Fear gripped his spine. The door opened and a man wheeled in a cloth-covered tray. When it reached her, she flipped back the cloth. The tray was neatly arranged with implements like a dentist used.
She picked up a syringe filled with a pale-yellow liquid—sodium pentothal. The truth serum.
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