Page 4 of Conflicted Lies

It’s not long until we arrive at the station, and when we park, she’s still out cold.You’ve got to be kidding me.

I pull her across the back seat and lift her, bridal style. She’s so fucking small in my arms, and her head bobbles around as she murmurs something. I’m walking her into the station as she mumbles again, and this time, I press my ear close to her lips so I can hear her…

“I’ll kill you,” she slurs.

Of course.

I sit her at the desk of the officer who will question her. He seems nervous as he looks over her file. “Are you sure? This is Ivanov’s kid, isn’t it?” he whisper-shouts.

I grab a bottle of water, open it, and tip it over her head. She gasps, bolting upright, flailing like a fish. “I’m sure,” I say with an evil grin.

“What the fuck?!” Her eyes snap in my direction, but I make a point to leave without so much as a word to her. I know the police officer will only ask a few questions, hardly daring to touch her. Protocol bullshit, but I can’t help enjoying watching her intimidate him with her gaze alone.

He’s floundering as he tries to handle her. I wonder how many see this side of Hope Ivanov. I’d done my research on her after our night together. To the world she looks divinely sweet and innocent, but when she needs it, this side of her slips through, where she has a little more bite. It’s like two sides of the same coin. She mostly takes after her mother, Lena Love, who is a famous singer. But when she gets like this, she’s more like her father, who is feared in the underworld, and for good reason.

Her vibrant red hair is stuck to her skin, and she restlessly shakes her cuffs. She keeps glancing my way, and I smirk. That seems to piss her off even more.

Lucas is busily typing up our report of the incident, more pissed than usual because it’s his wallet that’s been taken. “We won’t be able to keep her for long, but we have to get her for something. My wallet has my fucking baseball game tickets for next weekend in it.”

“Don’t you use digital ones like everyone else?” I ask, raising an eyebrow.

“It’s not the point. I was going to ask Heidi if she’d come with me. It doesn’t look as cool if I’m just showing her a screen.”

I say nothing. He’s had a crush on Heidi, the receptionist, since he started working here six years ago. I’ve never had the heart to tell him I fucked her within the first week of her being here. Every time he goes to ask her out, he suddenly has a reason why he can’t. This time, it was taken out of his hands by a certain little redheaded vixen.

Hope sighs, frustrated, as the police officer stands and comes over to me. “I don’t know how long we can keep her here.”

“For as long as it takes until we know where the wallet is,” I tell him.

“She said her friend has it.” I already know this.

“So find out what her friend’s name is and where she lives,” Lucas growls. I refrain from smirking at his anger. I cross my arms expectantly.

The officer licks his lips as he glances at the door as if waiting for hell to rain over us. I can’t fucking wait because I doubt even Alek Ivanov is that much of a savage to burst into a police station, especially if it might reflect badly on his wife’s career.

The officer gulps. “She said snitches get stitches.”

I can’t hold back the laughter at how terrified he is of one tiny woman.

“You want to question her?” he asks me, almost begging me to take over.

She’s slouched in the chair now as if trying to go back to sleep.

“Sure.” I’d fucking love to. My partner looks up at me and raises a brow. “Do you want your wallet back or not? Can’t have you missing out on a hot date.”

Red stains his cheeks, and I find it amusing at how straight and narrow this guy is and the mention of a date has him blushing.

I wait for them to take her into the interrogation room, and then I watch her from the other side of the one-way glass as she impatiently blows at her messy, damp hair. Hope Ivanov has definitely had better days. But even with mascara streaking down her face, she still looks like a goddess. I like this sight of her best. It’s like unmasking the little she-devil that so very few see.

Except for me. I did that night.

Explicitly.

She starts questioning if the cuffs are necessary as an officer hooks her wrists to the ring bolted to the table. The officer doesn’t engage as he walks away, and she screams, telling him he’s going bald at the back.

So very drunk and opposite to her usual self.

“Do you want me in there?” Lucas asks.

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