“You were in the clinic waiting room for twenty-two minutes before the men arrived.” I watch her carefully. “During that time, you took out a second phone and sent four text messages. And don’t even think about lying to me. I watched the footage myself with my own two goddamn eyes.”
Silence. The paper cup crinkles slightly in her grip.
“I know what happened.”
She stares at me.
“The Max Fedorov meeting,” I continue. “You want to tell me how Kolya knew exactly where I’d be? I swept my own offices down three days prior. That means the leak was human. You were close when it happened—too close. I didn’t want to believe that you were behind it; I couldn’t believe that someone I let so close to me would betray me like that. God, what a fool I was.
“But I didn’t think that you’d be reckless enough to move on Thea directly. I didn’t think that you’d be so stupid. I thought you might feed information but otherwise keep your hands clean. The clinic was ambitious.”
I lower my eyes.
“I miscalculated. And that’s my failing. But it won’t happen again.”
Silence. Alexei shifts his weight. It’s a small movement, but Amanda’s eyes dart toward him and I see the thing I’ve been waiting for.
Fear.
“Who the hell is he?” she asks.
“Alexei Petrov. He’s Thea’s cousin.”
She narrows her eyes slightly.
“He runs a private security firm that operates in twelve countries. Some of those operations are… what’s a good word Alexei?”
“Extrajudicial.”
“Extrajudicial,” I echo. “Alexei flew in when he learned that Thea is alive. And he’s quite motivated to keep her that way.”
I glance over my shoulder. Alexei doesn’t say a word, just watches Amanda with those dark eyes, the slightest hint of a smile on his lips. Amanda’s composure is cracking. The paper cup is now completely crunched in her hand, the muscles of her neck tense. I can sense her mind frantically searching for the right thing to say that will let her walk away from this.
“Let me explain something,” I go on. “Two of my men are dead, and the mother of my child is missing. And there isn’t the slightest doubt in my mind that you were the one who delivered her right into the arms of my enemy.”
“I—”
“Where is she, Amanda?”
“I can’t tell you. If I do, Kolya will?—”
“What Kolya will do to you is theoretical.What I’lldo to you is guaranteed.” I don’t raise my voice. I don’t need to. “You know me. You know what I’m capable of. But you don’t know what Alexei is capable of. If you don’t tell me what I want to know, I’ll be the one escorting you out of here, to the mansion, right to the basement.”
She blinks hard, her lower lip shaking. She knows what that means.
“I don’t need to tell you what happens in the basement, in those stainless-steel rooms. Alexei will accompany you down to one of them. And I’ll let him take his sweet time. Then, if there’s anything left, I’ll come down and finish the job myself. And you know me, Amanda. I don’t make threats—I make promises.”
Something behind her eyes gives way, and when she speaks again, her voice is flat, without hope or resistance.
“Please don’t kill me, Gabriel,” she says quietly.
I wait a long moment before responding.
“Information. Now.”
She swallows. “Kolya has a nightclub. It’s in Elizabeth, over in Jersey. It’s called Zoloto. He uses the basement for meetings, private things. That’s where he took her.”
“What’s the security like?”
