AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Which, incidentally, happens to be the second he bursts through the door.
“Where are they?” Martin demands. He immediately begins to look around the room as if anyone could be hiding behind the couch, in a closet, in the hollow of my desk. “Where the hell are they, Zakrevsky?”
“You’ll have to be more specific.”
“My wife!” he shouts, red-faced and literally spitting mad. “My daughter! Where are they?”
“Congratulations are in order,” I answer coolly. “I didn’t know you got married.”
He spins on me, more spittle flying from his mouth as he does. “Don’t play your fucking games with me! You know exactly what I mean!”
My calm is just a veneer over the rage bubbling up inside me. It’s simmering, but it’s about to become a roaring boil if he doesn’t calm the fuck down. “I’m sure I don’t. Now, what is it exactly that you want? I have a lot of business to take care of, so let’s wrap this up quickly.”
“Hand them over.” Martin jabs a finger at my face. He’s lucky he’s several feet away and out of reach, or that finger would be snapped, severed, and set in a place of honor on my mantel. “Hand my wife and kid over before you make me do something we’ll both regret.”
“Like violate your position with the LVPD by assaulting an unarmed civilian on private property?”
He glares at me. “You and I both know you’re not unarmed. I know who you are. I know the kind of business you deal with.”
I nod. “As I know yours.”
My gaze levels with his, and at last, he shuts the fuck up. I don’t have to say what we both know I’m thinking:You were at the auction, and not for police business. Please try to explain that to your boss.
Martin’s seething, but he takes a moment to force himself into a modicum of calm. “They’re missing. I can’t find them anywhere. Last I saw my wife, she was with you.”
“You keep talking about some ‘wife’ you supposedly have.” I crumple up another sheet of paper and toss it into the wastebasket just to pretend like I don’t care about his personal problems. And also, I’m imagining that’s his head slinging in a neat circle before plummeting into the trash.
“Clara.” He grinds his teeth. “I’m talking about Clara. And you know it.”
I do. But poking at his patience is far more constructive than what I really want to do, which is punch him in the face every time he refers to Clara as his “wife.”
“Well, you should have said so. She’s not married. You can see my confusion.”
Maybe he’ll grind his teeth down to the gums before he leaves my office. He’s on the right track with the way that jaw keeps working as he glares at me.
I decide to help him along. “When I met her, it seemed like she was running from something. Someone,rather. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that?”
“It’s none of your fucking business.”
“It is if you want information from me.”
Martin hesitates. But he’s sniffed the bait and he’s going for it. “We just had a minor disagreement. She gets overly dramatic about shit.”
I roll my eyes with a small chuckle. “You’re telling me.”
“Right?” The idiot leans in like we’re suddenly friends sharing secrets. “It’s like she’s begging for it. Nothing I ever do is good enough for her, just nag, nag, nag.”
“So you just pop her one to get her to shut up, right?”
“What can I say?” His face contorts into this creepy little smile and he shrugs a shoulder. “She loves it. Like it’s this kink with her. Just push, push, push until I have to put my foot down and lay her over my knee. Then it’s the hottest fucking sex I’ve ever had in mylife.Daddy issues, amiright?”
I clamp down to keep from erupting.Not yet. Wait until the moment is right.“Good thing your daughter has you to keep things in line.”
Martin sighs. “Yeah, well, it can’t all be a walk in the park. Willow’s starting to get mouthy like her mother. I’ve been easy on her ‘cause she’s so little, but she’s starting to get old enough for the belt.”
I will not murder a cop. I will not murder a cop. I will not murder a cop.
… yet.
