Chapter Thirteen
“Come on, you’re being stupid.” Reynolds’s smirk was enough to make Nika want to bite his nose off. “Do you really think some mafia enforcer gives two shits about a florist with a mildly attractive face? The guy was using you, Nika.”
Time had ceased to have meaning for Nika. Maybe she had been in this interrogation room for minutes, maybe hours. It was hot in the close little room. Her wrists were chafed from the too-tight cuffs. And by now her ears were ringing with the insults thrown at her by these useless bastards who were taking turns trying to break her.
I will not give in.
“Maksim Petrov doesn’t give two shits about you.” The man called Krupin threw a sheaf of photographs down on the table. “The man gets more pussy than he could ever use.”
The pictures showed Maksim coming out of a hotel with a tall, leggy brunette on his arm. The woman looked like a supermodel. Nika refused to be drawn in. Maksim had never claimed to be celibate. In fact he’d told her from the beginning that he’d only ever had time for one night stands.
Maksim is not a liar.
The words became her mantra. He would come for her. Nika knew this. She just had to stay strong until then.
“Where were you?” Krupin demanded. “Where is Ivan Petrov?”
“I already told you.” Nika kept her voice dead even. “I was on vacation in a friend’s house on the Intracoastal. I needed a break from the shop. I was alone. I don’t know where my sister is.”
“That’s bullshit!” Reynolds stabbed his hand through her hair and yanked her head back so harshly that her spine felt as though it might snap. “You were fucking him! We know you were.”
“Get me a lawyer,” Nika responded. “Lawyer, phone call, and a doctor for my father. Then maybe I’ll talk.”
“Mafiya whores like you get no lawyers!” Krupin spat in Russian.
Nika sneered at the cop whose loyalty was so obviously to the Tretiaks. “When did the Hollywood police department start interrogating their suspects in Russian?”
“Bitch!” Krupin grabbed her head and slammed her face into the table.
Stars exploded before her eyes. The blow left her reeling. With her hands secured to the chair she could do nothing to protect herself. Her thoughts fragmented. Lights danced across her vision as a kaleidoscope of color washed over her.
“Stop!” Reynolds warned. “We need her conscious.”
“She won’t answer!” Krupin complained. “We need to know which safe house Ivan Petrov is using. We’ve checked them all and it’s like he’s vanished. He needs to die. With him dead and Maksim on the hook for the murder, we will have full control!”
Reynolds smacked Krupin on the back of the head. “Way to do a classic villain info dump.”
“Fuck you!” Krupin attempted to hit Reynolds, but the cop was too quick for him. Krupin narrowed his gaze. “I just knocked her senseless. She doesn’t know what we’re saying.” Krupin put his mouth right next to her ear. “I could tell her that I’m going to strip her naked and fuck her in the ass right here on this table and she wouldn’t even care.”
Bile rose in Nika’s throat. The very idea of Krupin touching her was disgusting. Her reaction was almost reflexive. She whipped her head to the side and caught the Russian in the face. He shouted and grabbed his face as blood poured from his nose.
Reynolds actually laughed. He pointed at Krupin and said something in Russian. Nika was too muzzy-headed to register the words. Her Russian wasn’t spectacular and her head hurt so badly she was in danger of throwing up. In fact she was sitting at the table weaving side to side, feeling as though the only thing holding her up was her bound hands.
“Don’t play stupid with me,” Reynolds told her. He perched on the tabletop. “You don’t want us to hurt your father and your sister, do you?”
Nika didn’t dignify that with an answer. They had already hurt her papa. She had nothing to gain by believing they wouldn’t do it again just because she told them what they wanted to know. She would not give up her sister and Ivan’s location. These men would kill her and her family just for spite.
Maksim. I need you!
Somehow even though she had no idea where he was, she felt his strength seep into her body. Maksim was never weak. He loved her. He would come for her. And when he did, there would be hell to pay for these Tretiak assholes.
There was a knock at the door. Nika managed to hide her smile, even though the movements made her swollen lips burn. Reynolds looked almost panicked. Who had finally come to call? Someone not on the Tretiak payroll? Nika had to believe that those people still existed somewhere inside the Hollywood police department.
The door opened and a tall man with iron gray hair gestured to Reynolds and Krupin. “May I speak with you two for a moment?”
Nika saw them share a glance and wondered if this man had the power to let her go. At this point she just wanted to check on her papa and find a place to rest. And Maksim. She wanted Maksim.
The door had clicked shut, but Nika could still hear voices outside in the hallway. Her heart began to race as she heard the same word over and over again. Maksim. He was here. Only a few more minutes and Nika would be free.
***
Being inside the police department not only made Maksim twitchy. It made him downright grouchy. Like most enforcers, he wasn’t exactly unknown to the local law enforcement. He took great pains to keep himself just barely on the up and up to avoid prosecution, but he didn’t make a habit of strutting around the station house either.
Still, Maksim was willing to put himself through any amount of discomfort if it meant finding Nika and getting her the hell out of here. He was done putting her at risk for his brother, for her sister, or pretty much for anyone. Nika meant everything. It was about fucking time he started treating her that way.
“You’re sure this is accurate.” Buchanan was staring at Maksim as though he were the worst sort of thug.
“Yes. It’s absolutely accurate.” Maksim spoke so quietly that Buchanan had to lean forward to catch Maksim’s words. “I took the files from the Tretiak accountant himself.”
“Evidence obtained illegally is not admissible in court.” Buchanan looked pensive.
“You didn’t obtain it. It was an anonymous tip.” Maksim shook his head. “No. Fuck that. I’d be happy to tell everyone exactly where it came from.”
Buchanan chuckled. “You’d be painting a target on your back.”
“Like being here isn’t making myself target enough,” Maksim retorted. “Just arrest the fucks so we can get Nika out of here.”
It pissed Maksim off to no end that Buchanan looked at him as though he were gum on the man’s six hundred dollar shoes. Buchanan and Ivan had attended the same university together. Maksim and Ivan’s father had known the value of having a future Petrov leader who had rubbed shoulders with the men who ruled the upper echelons of law enforcement, politics, and industry. But Maksim? He was just the spare. Not even worth noticing unless someone needed a beating.
Now Ivan was still vacationing on his private island and Maksim was left to clean up the mess. Maksim forced himself to look as pleasant as possible. “You wanted Ivan to provide you with the traitors. You have what you need and more. Now get me Nika Sokolov and do it now. Or I will take that file and burn it and this whole damn place to the ground.”
Buchanan had now given Maksim his full attention. “Is that a threat?”
“No. It’s a fucking promise. I’m not my brother.” Maksim snarled a few choice words in Russian because for some reason it made American law enforcement nervous.
“Fine.” Buchanan stood and motioned to Maksim. “Let’s go find your Nika Sokolov.”
Along a hallway and down two flights of stairs they went. Maksim felt a fool a dozen times over for allowing himself to be lured so deeply into the bowels of the police station. What kind of man put himself in such obvious danger?
One who loves a woman.
The answer was so simple it somehow made him feel calm. He would get out of this even if he had to pull the place apart brick by brick. Their winding path finally ended in front of an interrogation room. Three men were arguing in low tones in the hallway. Maksim recognized two of them immediately.
“Hey!” Reynolds’s voice echoed off the walls. “What the hell is he doing down here? That fucker belongs in cuffs.” He gestured to a man whose uniform identified him as a captain of some kind. “Arrest that man. He’s the one we’ve been trying to get to.”
“Is that right?” Buchanan’s cold smile seemed to take some of the starch from Reynolds’s accusation. “Or do you want me to arrest Maksim Petrov because he has evidence that you and your partners are actually on the take from the Tretiak crime family?”
The captain swung around to peg Krupin and Reynolds with a hard glare. “I suppose this answers the question as to why this suspect is in custody.”
“No!” Krupin lunged at Maksim. “He’s a criminal!”
Maksim didn’t even bother to move out of the way. He caught Krupin and locked his arm around the smaller man’s neck. Grabbing the key ring off the man’s belt, Maksim dropped him like a discarded toy.
“Maksim, don’t,” Buchanan warned.
“Don’t what?” Maksim didn’t even bother to hide the derision in his voice. “I’m getting Nika and I’m leaving this place.” He glared at the captain. “Any objections?”
It didn’t take a lawyer to see that both Buchanan and the captain were thinking about the possible ramifications of false arrest and imprisonment charges by a young woman who had been obviously mistreated by their department.
“Go,” Buchanan told him quietly. “And don’t come back.”
Maksim’s instincts were screaming a warning not to go into the room. Even with keys in hand it felt as though he were entering the lions’ den. But if that was where he had to go in order to find Nika, he would.
She was slumped at the table. He had to clench his jaw to keep the agonized roar trapped inside. They had obviously beaten her, but he knew without asking that they hadn’t broken her. Nobody could break his wild girl.
“Nika,” he murmured. “I’m here.”
She stirred. Her blond hair was tangled and matted with blood. “Maksim?” Her voice was raspy and he hated to imagine all the reasons why.
He found the key and unfastened her cuffs. The skin around her wrists was purple and green with bruising. He lifted her tiny hands and kissed them. Then he swept her carefully into his arms and walked out of the interrogation room.
“I’ll be in touch,” Buchanan said with disinterest.
Maksim snorted. “Call Ivan. He’s the one who cares. I’m done.”
“You can never be done, Maksim.” Buchanan’s words burned like acid. “This is who you are.”
“Not anymore.”
Maksim made the trek out of the station with Nika cradled in his arms. The stares they received were plentiful, but nobody tried to stop him. Perhaps it was because they knew this woman had been grievously wronged. Or maybe he just looked like one mean son of a bitch.