Page 130 of The Pakhan’s Accidental Bride

Emil's gaze sweeps the room, landing on each of my brothers before finally settling on me. "We found him," he says simply.

The words hang in the air for a moment. Then everyone starts talking at once.

"The shooter?" Kevin demands.

"Where?" Jack is already moving away from the window, his cop instincts taking over.

"Is he alive?" Devin asks.

I don't say anything. I just watch Emil, my heart pounding in my chest.

Emil holds up a hand, and the room falls silent. His presence commands attention, demands respect, even from my brothers who hate everything he represents. "He's here. In the interrogation room."

Jack's expression hardens. "How long have you had him?"

"About an hour." Emil's gaze shifts to Jack, and something passes between them. An understanding, maybe. Or a challenge. "We haven't questioned him yet. I thought you might want to handle that."

Jack's eyebrows rise. "You're letting me interrogate him?"

"He's yours," Emil says. "This is your case. Your vendetta." He pauses, and his jaw tightens. "He hates you, Jack. That's why he went after Kiera. Because he wanted to hurt you."

The room goes completely silent. I can hear my own heartbeat, loud and fast in my ears.

"What?" Jack's voice is barely above a whisper.

Emil's expression is grim. "You arrested his younger brother three years ago. Drug charges. The kid was seventeen, tried as an adult, and sent to prison. He got shanked six months into his sentence and died in the infirmary."

Jack's face goes pale. "I remember that case. The kid was dealing fentanyl outside a high school. He had enough product on him to kill half the student body."

"His older brother didn't see it that way," Emil says. "He blamed you for his brother's death and spent the last two years planning his revenge. He was going to kill Kiera to make you suffer the way he suffered."

I feel like I can't breathe. All of this, all the fear and danger and violence, because of something Jack did as part of his job. Because he arrested a drug dealer and that dealer's brother wanted revenge.

"Jesus," Kevin breathes.

Devin looks like he might be sick. Kaleb just stares at Jack, his expression a mixture of shock and sympathy.

Jack's hands curl into fists at his sides. "Where is he?"

"Follow me," Emil says.

We all stand, moving as a group toward the door. My legs feel shaky, and I have to grip the back of the chair for a moment to steady myself. Emil notices immediately. He's at my side in an instant, his hand on my elbow, supporting me without making it obvious.

"You don't have to come," he says quietly, his voice meant only for me.

"Yes, I do," I say. "I need to see him. I need to know it's really over."

He studies my face for a long moment, then nods. "Stay close to me."

We walk through the estate, down the familiar hallways I've come to know over the past months. The interrogation room is in the basement, tucked away in a corner that most of the staff never sees. Memories crash down on me. Arnie, tied to a chair, bloody and broken. Emil standing over him with that cold, empty look in his eyes.

But when Emil opens the door to the interrogation room, the scene is different. The man sitting in the chair isn't tied up. He's not bloody or beaten. He's just sitting there, his hands resting on his knees, his expression defiant. He's younger than I expected, maybe late twenties, with dark hair and a thin face. There's a hardness in his eyes that speaks of pain and anger and years of resentment.

Two of Emil's guards stand against the wall, their expressions neutral, their hands resting casually near their weapons. But they don't move as we file into the room.

I'm grateful the man isn't bound. Grateful there's no blood, no visible signs of violence. He looks up as we enter, his gaze sweeping over all of us before landing on Jack. His expression twists into something ugly. "You," he spits.

Jack steps forward, his cop persona firmly in place. "I'm Detective Jack Walker. You're under arrest for two counts of attempted murder, stalking, and making terroristic threats."