Page 28 of His Hold

“Safe,” I say. “For now.”

Her eyes are huge, darting between me and the gun I’m still pointing at her. Smart girl.

“You shot at me.”

“I missed.”

“Intentionally?”

I shrug. “More or less. You followed me up a mountain. Consider the shot a warning.”

“Could’ve warned me by not shooting.”

“Wouldn’t have gotten the point across.”

She glares at me, her eyes burning through the pain. She’s tougher than she looks. But like I said, stupid. Following me up here, unarmed and alone? Suicidal.

“So, what now? Dragging me in here? What, you want to kill me where no one can hear?”

I tilt my head. “If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead. Already gave you that mercy once. Starting to regret it.”

She watches me with that defiant glare like she’s trying to read my mind. Like she thinks if she stares hard enough, she’ll figure out if I’m about to kill her or not.

“Start talking.” I sit down across from her, folding my arms. “The last time we talked, you didn’t give me a straight response. So, let’s try again. Why are you here? Why’d you follow me here? What game are you playing?”

“Why do you think?”

“You’ll be smart not to answer my question with a question.”

She swallows hard. “I already told you. My sister. She disappeared and—”

“Yeah, and I told you I had nothing to do with it,” I cut her off. “I’ve had it up to here with your tailing and accusations. Explain why you’re still after me.”

“Because you were the last one seen with her alive! She was running odd jobs for the Bratva. I know now you work for Kirill, who is a well-known mafioso. You were in on it. You must have been.”

Her words echo in the small room. The accusation burns, but I hold my ground. “You think I’m the only man she could’ve worked with? That’s a weak lead. Besides, why do you think I’d waste my time chasing after some girl doing petty jobs for cash?”

“Weak or not, it’s all I’ve got. Her disappearance doesn’t add up. She was doing...things for you guys. Dangerous things. I need you to tell me or at least point me in the right direction.”

“Believe what you want. But if I were involved, you’d be dead. And your sister wouldn’t be missing. She’d be buried.”

She flinches. The truth hurts. But I’m not here to play nice.

“What do you think she was doing for the Bratva?” Katya asks me.

“I should be asking you that. You are supposedly the last person who saw her alive.”

“I never even exchanged more than two sentences at a time with her. I was just assigned to be her bodyguard to the places she went.”

“So you don’t know who hired her? Or you?”

“It was five years ago before I started working for the man I am working for now. I had just lost my previous boss and was in between jobs, so I took some gigs on the downlow.”

“How many times did you escort her?”

“Just twice.”

She nods her head as though checking some information she has in her head. “And you never once asked your client? A woman you were supposed to bodyguard. Who was she meeting and what business did she have with them?”

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