Page 59 of Twisted Fate

“I’m the fucking lie detector.” Leo sets the knife down on the table. He rises and draws closer and it’s all I can do not to cower away from him.

“I don’t know where he is,” I spit the words out, managing to sound more angry than frightened. “If I did, I’d tell you.”

“Not that loyal to your so-called ex?”

“No, I’m not.”

“You’d throw him under the bus to save your own ass?”

“I’d throw him under the bus because he deserves it. He’s a bad guy.”

Leo laughs at that, the sound dark and forbidding. “A bad guy.” He shakes his head. “Tell me about his job. Who does he work for?”

I know I should come clean now, tell him what I overheard and my suspicion Enzo works for the Ivanovs. But I also know that’s a monumentally bad idea. Leo will probably think I kept the information secret all this time in order to protect Enzo. Shit. I should have told Damian the truth right from the start. Why did I think that keeping this secret was a good idea, one that might save me and Markus at some point? If anything, revealing it now will seal my fate. Leo will drop me in the ocean without a second thought.

“He never talked about work with me.”

“No?” He sweeps his gaze over me and I’m not sure if he’s disgusted by what he sees or impressed. “I’m guessing he didn’t trust you either.”

“I don’t know anything,” I say, raising my chin.

Leo’s lips curl to one side in a cruel smile. He takes another step closer, looming over me. “Here’s something I know about people, Alina. Everybody lies. About small things, about big things. Sometimes it’s easy to tell who’s telling the big lies, sometimes it’s not. At least, not until some duress is applied.”

I stop breathing for a moment. My gaze snaps to the table and the knife and the box with its macabre contents.

He laughs and it’s a bone chilling sound. “That’s a bit extreme at this stage. There are other ways of extracting information from a reluctant mouth. Some ways don’t even leave a mark. No evidence of what happened to get to the truth.” He nods. “Others do. They leave marks and scars and are accompanied by a great deal of pain.”

“I’m telling you the truth.” My heart is pounding. A lump of terror sits in my throat.

“I doubt you are. But I will know for certain soon enough. See, I don’t think it adds up. A new woman, out of the blue, lands in my brother’s bed. And she happens to be the girlfriend of the fucker who took out my father—”

“I am not Enzo’s fucking girlfriend,” I grit out.

“She steals my brother’s phone,” he continues as if I hadn’t spoken. “Searches for information. Installs spyware—”

“What? I never—”

“Sit down, Alina.” He nods at the chair he’d previously been sitting in.

I shake my head vigorously, backing away. I don’t get far. The backs of my knees hit the bed. I glance at the door, hoping for rescue. But there is no one to rescue me. Damian won’t save me from his brother. He brought me here on his brother’s orders, left me here alone to be interrogated by someone with a portable collection of his victim’s bones.

Leo takes another step forward. There is nowhere left for me to go.

“I’m thinking this is a new situation for you. So, let’s make this crystal clear,” he says. “When I tell you to do something, you fucking do it. Now sit.”

I stand, frozen by fear. When I don’t move quickly enough, Leo reaches forward, grabs my arm, and tosses me like a ragdoll down into the chair. I stare up at him, clutching the sheet like it’s my lifeline.

“Now, let’s start over Alina. Where is Enzo Bianchi?”

“I don’t know.”

“Who does he work for?”

“I don’t know.”

“What did you tell Bianchi when you used my brother’s phone to contact him?”

“What? No! I only called my brother!”

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