Page 53 of The Bratva's Innocent Pregnant Bride
“That’s the truth,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Let’s say it is,” he said, crouching down and glaring at me. “Now tell me about the Fokins.”
“What about them?”
“Don’t play stupid,” he said, reaching for my throat. His hand rested there, not quite gripping so hard I couldn’t breathe, but enough to make me understand how easily he could snuff out my oxygen supply.
“I’m not playing,” I said, not meaning to be funny but making him laugh anyway. “I was filling in as a nanny for them.”
“On the same day you ran from Axon, after accidentally seeing something in an office you shouldn’t have been in, you also accidentally got this request to fill in as a nanny? For the Fokins.”
I shrugged. “I admit I was glad for the opportunity to get out of LA once I knew something shady was going on at Axon.”
He shook his head, seemingly amazed. “You’re pretty good at this. I almost believe you. But the fake dumb act is wearing thin.”
He reached into his pocket and I held my breath, waiting to see his gun return and pointed at my head. But this time he pulled out a knife, and shockingly, this was even more horrifying than the gun. Where his hand had rested, waiting to squeeze, he now gently dragged the blade across my throat.
The skin dragged and he laughed. “It’s not razor sharp, want to know why?” When I recoiled and shook my head, he told me anyway. “Because it hurts more when it’s dull. It’s more fun for me.”
“I’ve told you everything I know,” I said, feeling sick and faint, torn between needing to scream and shriveling into a ball on the dirty floor. Then it hit me. Why would he care at all aboutthe Fokins? “I didn’t tell anyone that I worked at Axon. They don’t know anything about this.”
That was the first actual lie I had told, but I didn’t think my passing comment about having worked for the accounting firm to Dan was important. Certainly not important enough to put him in danger. At least I hoped not.
For some reason Agent Pierce found this hilarious. “Do you really think I believe you didn’t tell Aleks Fokin anything about Axon? When I have to believe he was the sole reason you were working there in the first place? Then the second you know something you go running back to your boss about it?”
Nothing he said made sense anymore. It was as good as gibberish to me. The urge to throw up was so strong it almost distracted me from my fear. I leaned over, ignoring his knife, pressing my head between my knees and gulping air.
He yanked me up by a fistful of my hair. Oh God, I was going to throw up all over him. I actually felt dizzy and slammed my eyes closed against his snarling face.
“Do you think you’re protecting them?” he shouted, shaking my head like it wasn’t attached to my body.
My scalp burned when he finally let go, panting with rage. He got so close I could feel his hot breath as he huffed at me. He wasn’t making sense, but he hadn’t been since he started questioning me about the Fokins in the car. Why was he so concerned with them? Even if I knew anything, why would I tell my temporary employers about a mass murder plot? They’d think I was crazy and I’d be out the door.
I worked so hard not to puke that I didn’t realize I was crying. Not just from the pain this rotten FBI agent inflicted on me, but because of pure frustration that he refused to believe the simple truth.
“I told you everything I know,” I said, gulping back the tears. Putting my face in my hands, I shook my head. “I swear it.”
He jerked one hand away from my face and slammed it to my side. A second later I felt cold metal wrapping around my wrist, clicking until it was uncomfortably tight. Another click and I was cuffed to the chair. He made scuff marks in the dust all around me, then grabbed the back of my head, forcing me to look down at them.
“If I come back and find you’ve moved this chair even one inch outside these lines, you’re going to wish you didn’t.”
There were a lot of things I wished I hadn’t done, going all the way back to not quitting Axon months ago. I was too broken to say it, fearing he would think I was clapping back. I kept my chin on my chest, praying I’d wake up and realize this was all a bad dream brought on by too much stress.
“Did you hear me?” he asked, knocking me in the side of the head.
“Yes,” I murmured. “I won’t move.”
“Good. Now I’ll give you some time to ponder whether your life is more important than the people you work for.”
“I don’t give a damn about anyone at Axon,” I said. If I lived through this I vowed to send an anonymous text message to my old cubicle neighbor, Leslie, telling her to get out and never look back, and then I hoped never to hear their wretched name again.
Pierce chuckled. “You’re good, I’ll give you that. A consummate liar. Whoever trained you would be proud. But you know damn well I’m talking about the Fokins. You must be in pretty deep to be going so far to cover for them.”
I looked up, feeling like my head weighed twice what it should. “They’re just a family I was babysitting for,” I said. New fear welled up at the rejuvenated gleam in his eyes. “And I swear to you they don’t know anything about Axon. They wouldn’t even know it exists.”
He laughed again. “You’re not going to live long enough to get a bonus, Miss Moore. Not that they’ll be around much longer, either.”
And like a damn supervillain from the kind of movies I absolutely hated, he laughed all the way out the door. Even after he slammed me into the room, trapped in my dust-marked spot, I could hear his evil laughter all the way until he was out of the warehouse, the lonely clang of the big metal door sounding like a death knoll.
