Page 86 of Betrayed

“Shut up, idiot,” she hissed. “Wait for our fucking attorney.”

“No. Give me immunity,” he cried, “and I’ll spill my guts. It was her. She was behind it all, and I can tell you how she did it.”

“We can talk about that,” Taylor said, “once we get to the station.”

“Give it to him if you like, but she’s not the mastermind. We saw him last night.” He crouched in front of Adri who had suddenly gone pale. “What about you? Are you ready to save your skin?”

“He’ll kill me,” she admitted with an audible quiver.

Taylor and Delvecchio turned to Adri, Don no longer of interest.

“Who will?” Arturo pressed. “Protecting him won’t save you, Adri. If he is who I think he is and is out there, he’ll get to you.”

She shook her head.

He eyed the bruise surrounding her left eye and the cut on the side of her mouth.

“He gave you that black eye and busted lip, didn’t he?That’s nothing. SAS trained him in torture. If he suspects you’ll get scared and give him up, he’ll use every agonizing technique on you before he kills you. The truth and FBI protection are your only hope.”

“How do you know all this?” she asked.

“Because I’m MI6, Adri, and I trained with him.”

That got to her. He could tell by the fear, stark and vivid, that glimmered in her eyes. Despite that, she said nothing. He stood. “Let her loose and take him. If she won’t cooperate, we’ll make it known that she has anyway. She won’t last 24 hours once he thinks she’s spilled her guts.”

Delvecchio nodded. Seamlessly following Arturo’s lead, he moved toward her, reaching in his pocket for his keys, as if ready to unlock her cuffs.

“No, please,” she whispered, her voice shaking. “I don’t want to die.”

“Names, numbers, descriptions, and step-by-step details of how this went down, and we give you protection,” the agent said as he towered above her seated form. “Otherwise...”

“Ray Ashworth. He’s MI6”—her eyes cut to Arturo—“like you.” Both Taylor and Delvecchio turned to him in surprise.

“I suspected as much after seeing him last night.” He cursed beneath his breath. “Where is he? Why isn’t he in on this deal?”

“This isn’t his deal,” Don answered.

“Shut up,” Adri hissed.

“We’re screwed either way,” he screamed at his wife. “Ashworth was only involved in the urban stealth drone. Paid through the nose for the technology.”

“What about them?” Arturo asked, nodding at the six cuffed men behind them.

“That was all her,” Donnie boy spat, “She’s a goddamn greedy bitch.”

Thrown under the bus by him, the greedy bitch screamed right back. “Shut up, asshole!”

“Quiet. Both of you,” Arturo ordered; the lethality of his tone didn’t require that he raise his voice. “What were you looking for at Mari’s house?”

Don had the answer to that, too. “Derek’s research. Ashworth suspects he’s implicated in his notes. Before he died, Derek was talking about going to the feds with everything. That’s when he killed him.”

“We have video evidence of who tampered with his brakes. They were not British.”

“Hired job,” Don replied.

“You must have a death wish,” Adri said, shaking her head in amazement.

“I don’t care. I’m tired of living in fear of you and your psycho terrorist friends. If I’m dead or in prison, at least I’d be away from you.”

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