Page 72 of Savage Claim

“It doesn’t matter what you believe,” Elias said and gestured to the folder. “You don’t have any evidence to the contrary.”

“You understand that you’re looking at life in a federal prison,” Agent Lewis said, directing her words to me.

Elias wasn’t having it. “You have no proof that Mr. Vitali was involved with either of these incidents. He is avictimof whoever built these explosive devices, not the perpetrator.”

The agents stared at us for a long time. I knew it was a tactic that they used: silence for long stretches. It built tension in the room, and for someone with a conscience, it gave them time to spin out in their own guilt. Unfortunately for them, I had been well trained to settle into such silences. Hell, I used them myself at times to get what I wanted.

“You want to know what I think?” Agent Matthews asked finally.

I was getting really bored, and the fabric of the shirt Elias brought me was scratchy against my skin. “Enlighten me,” I replied, and Elias tapped my arm without even looking at me, reminding me to keep my mouth shut.

“I think you hired someone to blow up your property so that you would have an excuse to pick a fight with the Russian Syndicate.” Agent Lewis’s eyes went wide, and it became clear right away that he said something that he wasn’t supposed to.

“Agent Matthews.”

He ignored her. “But you fucked up because you used thesame personto go after Efram Volkov,” he continued. “Even worse, you left Efram’s body, thinking it would be destroyed in the explosion, at least enough that no one would notice that he’d eaten a gun shortly before he started to burn.”

He was panting hard, as if he’d just revealed some kind of smoking gun. This was laughable. “Do you have any proof tyingmy client to this theory of yours?” Elias asked. “Recordings of him calling out a hit? Money moved from his accounts?” When the agents didn’t say anything, Elias made a softtsk-ing sound. “I think you and I both know that if you take Mr. Vitali in front of a judge, you’ll be laughed out of a court room, so why don’t we skip the embarrassment, and you let him go now.”

Agent Matthews looked at his partner. “Maybe Isabella will be interested in telling us the truth,” he said.

“You brought my wife here?” Red hazed my vision. Isabella, wrapped in a bed sheet with tears in her eyes, was in one of these interrogation rooms. Did she have clothes on? Was she being stared at by some other contemptuous bastard? “You are the biggest bunch of morons that I have ever met. If you do or say anything to her?—”

“Lorenzo.” Elias’s voice was sharp, but the two agents were already grinning and slobbering as if I’d offered to sign a confession.

“Why don’t you start talking to us, Mr. Vitali,” Agent Lewis suggested. “Before we have to charge your pretty little wife as an accomplice and put her in a cell. I’m sure she’d be very popular with the other inmates.”

I committed Agent Lewis’s face to memory. One day, I was going to watch the light fade from her eyes.

CHAPTER 46

Isabella

Isqueezed my fingers together, trying to stop the trembling in my hands. The air conditioning was blowing directly onto me, and when I tried to move, the agent who had yet to give me his name demanded that I sit back down.

“Why hasn’t anyone called for my lawyer?” I asked.

“You’re not in trouble, Mrs. Vitali,” the agent said, though his tone said otherwise. “We’re just having a conversation.”

“A conversation that couldn’t wait until the morning,” I pointed out. “One that I’m not allowed to walk away from.” I wrapped my arms around myself, rubbing my icy skin. I was glad that the member of the SWAT team who’d arrested Lorenzo had allowed me time to get dressed before they brought me here, but I regretted not taking a sweater.

I winced at the throb in my lower belly. That was another thing: I had been here for hours, and they had refused to let me go to the bathroom. They kept putting it off in a gentle kind of way, but it was becoming an issue.

“I really need to use the restroom,” I said.

“Soon,” the agent promised.

“I’m six months pregnant,” I reminded him for the fifth or sixth time. “You can’t keep me from going to the bathroom.”

“I’m not keeping you from anything,” he said. “I’ll take you down to the restroom as soon as you walk me through the last few months. You quit your job, dropped out of school, and married a man fifteen years older than you. That seems really drastic.”

An argument was on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed it back.Don’t talk. It was the only thing Amalia was able to say to me before I was led away. I had to be strong for Lorenzo and for myself.

I sat up straighter. “I don’t have to say a word to you. I’m his wife, so you can’t make me,” I said. “If you’re going to continue to keep me here, I want my lawyer, and I need to use the restroom, or I will piss on this chair.”

He stared at me, trying to decide if I was bluffing or not. I stared back, eyebrow raised in defiance. When I didn’t back down, his shoulders deflated. “Fine.” He stood up. “Follow me.”

The agent walked me down the hall to the bathroom. When I closed the door, I realized there was no lock.Seriously?But the need to go outweighed my need to have a door that locked. When I finished my business, I quickly washed my hands.

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