Silence stretched between them. He leaned back slightly in his chair, watching her like he was recalculating something. “You think that doing this will bring you closure?” he asked.
“I think that it will give me some much-needed answers,” she said. “I think if I don’t look him in the eye and hear him tell me what he did, that I’m going to keep wondering if there’s something I missed.” Her throat tightened. “And I’m done wondering—I need answers, Luca.”
Luca’s gaze hardened slightly. “He made a deal,” he said. “There’s nothing else to understand.”
“There is for me,” she insisted. She stepped closer to him and was standing right in front of his desk. “I need to know if there was ever a point where I mattered more than the power he wielded over me.
Luca didn’t answer right away because he already knew the answer, and she knew that he knew. “That’s not a question you need answered,” he said finally.
“Yes, it is,” she said.
“No,” he growled.
“Yes,” she hissed. Silence snapped tight between them as her chest rose and fell. She wasn’t backing down, though—not this time. “Tell me something,” she said.
His eyes narrowed slightly. “What?”
“If I walk out of here right now and find my own way to him—what happens?” That seemed to get his attention. Luca went still—completely still.
“You won’t,” he insisted.
“You don’t know that,” she spat.
“I do,” he breathed.
Her chin lifted. “Try me.” There it was—the challenge. It was the moment where this could go one of two ways. One of them would win this argument, and she planned on it being her.
Luca pushed back from the desk slowly, standing to his full height. The shift in the room was instant and heavy. He walked around the desk, stopping just in front of her. He was standing so close to her, she could smell his cologne. God, she loved the way that he smelled, and as her traitorous body leaned into him, she wanted to curse at herself.
“You think I’m going to let you walk out of here after everything that’s happened?” he asked quietly.
“I think you don’t get to keep me in a cage,” she said, defiantly raising her chin at him.
His jaw tightened. “This home is not your cage.”
“It feels like one,” she countered.
“Then you’re not paying attention.” Her breath hitched, but she didn’t step back and didn’t look away.
“Then explain it to me,” she said.
“You want to see him?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“You want answers?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“You think he’s going to tell you something that makes this better?”
Her voice dropped. “No.” She wasn’t naive, and she knew that even if her father admitted to selling her to the Russians,it wouldn’t change anything that had happened to her—and to Luca.
“Then why do it?” he questioned. Her chest tightened because that was the real question—the one she didn’t want to answer.
“I need to know there’s nothing left there worth holding onto,” she said.
Luca’s gaze shifted slightly. “And if there isn’t?” he asked.
