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He burst out laughing, confusing me even further. “I like you. You’re not at all what I expected.”
“And what’s that?”
Instead of answering, he continued on. “I guess we’ll enjoy our dinner together before I get to why I’m here.”
I twirled some more pasta on my fork and forced down another mouthful, washing it down with some wine. I almost asked the waiter for another glass, but I was already tipsy. The last thing I needed was to be drunk around this man.
We sat in silence until the waiter arrived with his dinner. He dug in ferociously, cutting his bloody steak and savoring every bite. I watched as he mopped up the blood on the plate with bread and nearly vomited. Not much bothered me, but there was something evil about this man, and I knew I wouldn’t be walking away at the end of the night.
I reached forward to distract myself and straightened the bread basket, then centered the flowers on the table. It was just a small vase, but it was off-center and driving me insane.
“Something wrong?”
“Just crooked,” I answered, continuing to fix things. Once everything was parallel to the table and centered as it should be, I felt myself calm just a little.
The man set his cutlery down and wiped at his mouth. “So, now that we’re finished, it’s time I tell you my purpose of being here. I am Ebarardo Zavala. Have you heard of me?”
I shook my head, grabbing my glass of water. “Should I?”
A crooked smile filled his face. “You helped someone steal a shipment from me. It cost me millions of dollars.”
Shipment. I hadn’t done anything like that. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Of course you do. You provided the keycard to the storage unit.”
No matter how hard I tried to keep my face neutral, I failed miserably.
“Ah, I see you remember what I’m talking about. It wasn’t easy to track you down. You’ve been busy.”
My mouth went dry as I realized who I was sitting across from. Although I wasn’t entirely sure who this man was, I knew it had something to do with a powerful crime syndicate Rafe had been trying to take down. And now they knew I was involved. No wonder the waiter didn’t ask him any questions. He commanded power like a Roman God.
Any hope I had of walking out of this restaurant tonight quickly dissipated. In the span of an hour, my night had gone from bad to the verge of death. I couldn’t see any way out of this. I had no information to barter with this man, and I had a feeling all that would do was make my death faster.
“Who are they?”
The question took me by surprise. “Who are…what are you talking about?”
“The men who broke into my storage unit. You were stealing something at the museum, but you were just a distraction. So, tell me who these other men were and you can walk away.”
Those other men were most likely from OPS. While I didn’t know that for sure, it would make sense that Rafe used them since they had already been involved in getting to Hugo. Still, it wasn’t definitive proof, and it didn’t matter anyway. I wouldn’t turn them over to this bastard, not even to save my own neck.
Besides, if he found out I was involved, it wouldn’t be too much longer before they found OPS on their own. Chances were, they already knew, but were looking for other information from me about them.
“I’m sorry, I can’t help you.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Both,” I said, holding my head high. “I only know the part I played. As for who else might have been involved, that wasn’t for me to know.”
“And if you did know?”
“I wouldn’t tell you. I’m not a rat.”
His lips twitched with a smile. “Admirable, but that won’t save your life.”
After everything I had been through, this was the one thing I refused to give. “A friend of mine recently betrayed me. He tried to have me killed, and when that didn’t work, he turned on me and sold me out to the Russian mob. I know firsthand what it means to have loyalty in this business, and I will not be the one to turn on someone else. Do what you want, but I won’t breathe a word.”
Though my words were strong and fearless, I was quaking inside. I had no way out, no one to help me out of this mess. Nicholas was gone and I had no idea if he had any intentions of returning, and if he did, he would only end up on the wrong side of things—just as I had.
