“If Giselle is a cop, why’d she help you?”
“I took her boyfriend and told her I’d free him if she helped me.”
“But you killed her.”
“Him too,” he shrugged. “Long before she came to get you.”
I sat there, feeling a wave of shock as that dark truth settled over me.
Axel didn’t care about me or Bandit. He’d let so many bad things happen to both of us today. “My husband was undercover?”
It was a truth so big I needed to digest it in pieces.
I needed to rewrite my entire marriage with him.
Every memory and moment seemed to mean something different, knowing he was an undercover cop.
Sergei’s voice was conversational now. “You people are all the same. You want to know what your biggest downfall was in all of this?”
“What?” My voice sounded wooden.
“You trusted Axel. You believed in the fairy tales, and that brought you to your own downfall.”
I felt raw. Stripped and broken. I thought I had convinced myself that I was on my own when I thought Axel was in jail.
But knowing that Axel had betrayed me was the moment that I understood just how alone I was. Hopelessness washed over me. The end of my life was speeding toward me, only hours away, and it looked more than bleak. “I didn’t know that about him.”
“That’s what makes it funny.” Sergei turned on the radio. “I’m in a good mood now.”
My throat felt like dry chalk, but I managed to speak. “If you’re going to kill me, I’d rather you just get it over with.”
He glanced over at me. “Not until you serve your purpose.”
I had no idea what that meant. I didn’t want to know, but I couldn’t stop myself from asking. “What’s my purpose?”
He smiled at no one, enjoying this conversation way more than a normal person would. “I want to make sure Axel knows I have you. So he can rot with that guilt for the rest of his life.”
“You just told me he’s undercover. He obviously doesn’t care.”
He focused on the road. “He’ll care when I finally expose him for the rat he is.”
My mind couldn’t focus on one thing for long. Just flashes.
Axel was a Russian cop.
He’d never cared about me.
I was a job.
He left me in jail.
I looked over with repulsion at Sergei, who was assessing each motel as we passed.
I’m already dead. I just haven’t stopped breathing yet.
Every thought felt muffled and far away as my brain fought through the residual drug that Sergei had given me. I stared out the window into the dark. We were in some small town. I didn’t know which one.
Bandit was locked in the backyard, in the rain and without any food, and there was no one to save him.
