Page 69 of Koroleva

Both of us took care of settling Andrey; I had exactly five minutes to make him talk before the effect I was looking for would vanish.

"I'll be very concise and I expect the same precision in response. What are your boss's intentions?"

"You're a jerk," he spat. A good start. "I could have answered that without you having to plug me with crap, tie me up, or fry me."

"Well, you didn't seem to know at the bar... Maybe your ideas have cleared up. Do us both a favor and don't make this difficult." His gaze narrowed.

"She wants to know who is behind the alteration of the Mentium and the suicidal effects." I let out a laugh.

"You're screwed. We all want to know that! But why does she want to marry R?!"

"I've already told you. Because she wants to find out," Andrey insisted.

His forehead was beaded with sweat.

"And what does that have to do with Romeo?" Those lips that had kissed me fiercely trembled, trying to ignore the drug's effects, he was convinced.

I snapped my fingers for Dante to bring another ampoule and threatened him with it. If he kept delaying the answers, I would run out of time. I plunged the needle.

"You can't inject me anymore!" he roared. "I don't know if you realize, but pentothal is lethal if you overdose, and my boss won't hesitate to kill you if you take me out of this place feet first. If you want someone to send flowers, let it not be to your own funeral."

"Then talk!" I roared. "What does this have to do with Romeo and what motivated her to marry him, beyond the liquidity?"

I loaded the syringe in front of his eyes and raised it.

I saw him hesitate and, as good as he was, I was not in the mood for bullshit. I stabbed it into his neck, and just as I was about to give him a trip, he spoke.

"Okay, stop pumping me full of crap. I'll talk." I pulled away from his neck and faced him. "Koroleva thinks your boss is behind the deaths and wants to prove it." That did surprise me.

"Are you telling me she agreed to a wedding over this nonsense?"

"Killing people and making your company collapse is not nonsense." I shook my hands.

"Wait, wait, wait. Do you also think that of Romeo?"

"What I think is that he was her direct competition and if anyone had enough motive to sink the Korolevs and subjugate them under his foot, it was the Capulets." I let out a hoarse laugh.

"You clearly don't know Romeo."

"And you do? So well that you would guarantee he isn't behind all this?"

"He has nothing to do with it," I replied, gritting my teeth. "R would never have done something like this, especially not to Yuri's sister."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because I know him, because Romeo may be many things, but he would be incapable of killing innocents, and that's what the Mentium does."

"It might have gotten out of hand," he justified, "that his intention wasn't exactly that and the guy he hired to alter it screwed up." I shook my head.

"No."

"How do you know?"

"Because none of us have set foot in Korpe, because I know every move, every order, and it wasn't him. Romeo hasn't infiltrated anyone, nor has he bribed any worker to alter the formula."

"Why should I believe you?"

"You don't have to. When the truth comes out, it will hit you in the face, and then you will realize that the reasons that led your boss to accept the Capulets into her life were a mistake."

---