AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Drawing in a deep breath, I slowly exhale and lower myself into the chair. I’m calm now, a fact that should disturb me more than the reason I’m here.
“I didn’t have a choice,” I offer in a controlled tone. “I did what I had to do.”
He huffs, rubbing the pad of his thumb against his temple as his fingers fan against his face. “Offer yourself up as bait?”
I shake my head. “Offer intel. I just didn’t expect things to go quite so left of center.”
“Left of center?” Wrinkles crease his forehead as he peers at me through an opening in his index and middle finger. “That’s what you call getting yourself kidnapped and starting a war this government has to clean up? A decorated FBI agent is dead because of you.”
He doesn’t have to remind me. I was there. The image is burned into my memory for eternity. Nothing will bring him back. Nothing will bring any of usback.
“Maybe you missed the part where I was enslaved and tortured, yet still managed to put an end to Niko Gaheris. You remember him, right—the other ambiguous unchecked box on your precious most wanted list?” Chief Dunning winces at the disgust in every word, and I’m glad. Relaxing my grip on the armrest, I manage a smirk. “Let me remind you again that I’m the victim here, so instead of berating me, maybe you should give me a medal.”
“For what? Taking off your clothes before taking his life?”
My heart slams against my chest, but I won’t react to his taunts. “I did what I had to do. You weren’t there.”
“Good thing too. The only one who gave a damn to help you returned home in a box.”
I clear my throat. “Can we please stick to—”
“Frankly, Miss Chernova,” he yells, anger causing the vein in his temple to throb, “I have a hard time deciding what to do first—charge you with reckless endangerment, accessory to the murder of a federal agent, or just being a fucking pain in my ass.”
Strike one. Temper.
I gather my long red hair in one hand and drape it over my left shoulder. “Well, while you’re deciding, let me add one more charge to that list—collusion.”
Sweat beads above the chief’s black and gray eyebrows, and that flicker in his eyes returns. This time, I have no doubt what it means. Fear is raw and distinctive, a siren for darkness and a source of nourishment for the wicked.
“What have you done?” he whispers.
I smile and detonate the bomb I’ve held quietly strapped to my chest. “Your job, sir.”
