Page 16 of The Lies Between Lovers

“Did you just ...” Feliks leaned in closer to inspect the door. “Chisel the fucking lock out?”

“With a very good knife,” Vas responded dully. “The others, though—well, they just needed a bit of prying, no?”

“The others?”

Feliks didn’t hesitate to step inside the office at the news to see the rest of the chaos Vaslav’s surprise visit had brought along with his presence. Every filing cabinet and drawer that had been locked in the office was now busted. He hadn’t been kind about the way he dug through the man’s—and the business—documents. Scattered papers and files littered the floor. Years’ worth.

He didn’t even bother to close the drawers of one cabinet before he moved on to the next in search of what he wanted to find. Eventually, he did. Amongst other things.

“What in the ... why, Vas?”

“I needed to find something,” he said simply, waving the file in his hand.

Feliks’ gaze narrowed in on him as he took a step toward Vas where he sat behind the desk. His shoes, likely the same ones he’d been wearing at the funeral earlier, scuffed against the floor covered in discarded papers. It would take the man a good month to get them all filed back in place, but he’d probably hire the job out to someone else.

“Is that—”

“The file of employee V-A-T-S-H-point-oh-two-four,” Vaslav interjected.

“Vera.”

A tiny, but cruel, smile answered Feliks.

Then, Vaslav said, “I see her contract ran out a short time ago.”

“So it seems.”

“And the file was a little disjointed from the others in the cabinet. Once I had the drawer open, it was the first one I pulled out because it was that noticeable.”

“Meaning what?” Feliks returned hotly.

“That you’ve recently been looking at it.”

“I could have been in that cabinet for any number of reasons! This is my office!”

“Namely, her. Yes?”

He didn’t expect an answer.

Not really.

Feliks swallowed hard, his throat bobbing with the action. “Get out of my fucking office.”

“Before or after I put a bullet in your brain?”

“For what?”

“I have an entire list of reasons, Feliks. Starting with whose blood runs through your veins,” Vaslav said before he threw the file with little concern to the desk, uncaring when the papers inside spilled out and to the floor as Feliks watched. Entirely helpless. “And ending somewhere around your involvement with that woman right there.”

“Vera,” the man said.

Again.

Vaslav hated her name in his mouth. He despised the way Feliks said it, even when it was colored with his confusion. Even if it was the same way every other person in this godforsaken country would say it, Vaslav utterly loathed the sound coming from the man across from him.

“I will literally split your tongue straight down the middle and watch you drown in your blood if you do that again,” Vaslav warned the man. “Test me.”

Feliks’ brow knotted in the middle. “Do what—what in the fuck is wrong with you?”