Page 253 of Maddening Fixation

I paused. “Exactly where traitors belong.”

The color drained from his face.

“No.”

The word came out broken.

“No, no, no...” He pulled against the restraints desperately. “Please.”

His breathing became frantic. “Don’t do that to her.”

I frowned.

This wasn’t the reaction I expected.

“She fucking hates the darkness.”

My body went still.

“What?”

His eyes filled with panic.

“When she was sixteen, she got trapped in a storage room during a raid. She was in there for hours, alone in the dark. It nearly broke her.”

He pulled desperately against the ropes.

“Please. I’m begging you.”

His breathing turned ragged.

“I’ll give you whatever you want. Money. Information. Anything. Just get her out of that basement.”

My jaw tightened.

“She’s innocent. I haven’t had any contact with her since I disappeared. She didn’t even know where I was.”

The certainty in his voice caught me off guard.

I turned toward Keegan.

My voice was quieter now, but the suspicion in it was unmistakable.

“You told me he confessed that Juliet planted the tracker on my phone.”

Keegan’s expression shifted.

A small hesitation.

A hesitation I noticed immediately.

“He admitted his daughter was involved in planting the tracker on your phone, boss. But he never identified which daughter. I assumed it was Juliet. Given how much she hates you, it seemed logical. Yarina would never betray you like that.”

My eyes narrowed.

I turned back toward Sokolov.

His head hung low.