“Interpol money. You accepted our money while hiding inside a criminal organization. How do you think they will react tolearning that not only did they have a spy in their midst foryearsbut his precious daughter was one too?”
Surging forward, I slam my hand against the table and the cuffs pull painfully at my joint. “I never told your lotshit!”
“Not directly, but a few fake signatures and we can make anyone believe anything. You helped your father when you were younger.”
“I was a child! I didn’t know what he was making me do!”
“But you still did it.”
“I didn’t know!”
“Deliveries of information, payments and you even handed us the address of three men we arrested because of your father.”
“Decades ago,” I spit, barely able to contain my fury. “I’m not a fucking rat!”
“Will they believe that, though?” Richard sighs as though we’re discussing something as ordinary and as boring as the weather. “We can make the truth fit what we need, and after what you and the Irishman have been doing across Europe? You had to know that explosion would bring eyes.”
Irishman.
Cian.
“Where is he?” I demand. “You can’t keep him here like this!”
“My dear, I can do whatever I like.” He adjusts his messily knotted tie. “But the man you care about… you can help him. It’s quite simple, Faina. Either you do some work for us because youoweus, for your debt and your father’s, or you and Cian willbe smothered under the full force of international law and you won’t see the outside of a jail cell until your teeth have turned to dust.”
“No,” I growl out, bouncing one leg aggressively. “Fuck no. There’s nothing in this fucking world that will make me betray my people.”
“Are you sure about that?” he asks in such a sweetly condescending tone that I can’t help but hurl a mouthful of furious spit at him.
It lands on his tie and he sighs wearily.
“Fuck you,dick. I’m not a traitor and I’m not helping you do shit. Not then, not now, notever. You know, you lot are just as bad as us. All cops are. You just think because you have a little book or binder that tells you it’s okay then you just get away with breaking the law, huh?”
Richard slowly packs up the folder and closes it, then he clasps his hands together and rests them on top. “I think you should give this some real thought, Faina, because if you are against this then I’ll take the same offer to Cian. Do you really want him finding out why you said no? I can’t imagine someone cut from the same criminal cloth as you will look at you the same after we share your family history with him.”
21
CIAN
Ican’t breathe.
No one comes when I knock on the door.
No one comes when I bang on the door.
No one comes when I yell at the top of my lungs to be let out, or when I slam my body against the door trying to dislodge it from its hinges. It’s sealed shut and I’m alone.
Alone with nothing but a metal bedframe and a paper-thin mattress, and walls that close in around me every time I suck in a strained, terrified breath.
I’m supposed to be safe.
This isn’t supposed to happen again.
But it is.
Every time I blink, the pale walls turn dark and gray with blood splatter rising up them like a tidal wave. The light above me flickers and grows dark, turning into the single cracked spot of light that haunted me for the weeks I was in captivity. Thetiled floor turns to stone and I see torn chunks of my own flesh scattered around from where they’ve carved layers off me for no reason.
They never asked me any questions.
