“It was never my original intention to bring you into my plan, least of all share with you private details about my life.” As Nikolai smirks again, I want to punch it off his beautiful face. “However, I want to thank you for keeping that to yourself, Josslyn.”
I roll my eyes and act like it’s more of an annoyance than how I truly feel about Nikolai having my phone tapped and some flunky ready to kill me at a moment’s notice. What I feel is much more than annoyance, it’s fucking terrified. “Well, it’s not like you’ve given me a choice.”
Nikolai casually waves his arms in the air, the restraints clattering against the table. “Fair enough.”
The air between us is so dense, if I were to toss a coin between us, I wouldn’t be surprised if it never crossed the table.
I break my gaze from his and look down at his hands lying on the table. They are folded over each other, the palm of his left hand lying over his right. The black ink has me curious.
When I found the John Doe cases, they were covered in very similar tattoos. Thanks to Jim, I researched Russian tattoos and found this whole subculture surrounding them. When I saw Nikolai for the first time, I noted he had very similar markings, but I never really got a good look at his. The only ones I really remember are the St. Basil’s cathedral on his back, the crucifix in the center of his chest, and the eight-pointed stars under his shoulders and on his knees. I know there was more ink on his body, but I was too distracted with keeping myself alive to catalog them to memory. Now I’m itching to learn more about them as I observe his appearance.
His left hand has a deadly-looking skull sitting on top of several geometric shapes. On his right hand, only his fingers are tattooed. Starting with his index finger, there is a makeshift ring tattooed that presumably goes around his entire finger. The focal point is a circle with a solitary black dot in its center. On his middle finger, there is a cross, and on his last two fingers are a club and a spade, exactly like you would see on a deck of playing cards.
My mind momentarily drifts when I look more closely at his hands. I have always been fascinated with man’s hands. I love how they can hold and comfort you, excite you to peaks of unadulterated ecstasy, yet hurt you in one solitary movement. Hands can make you feel blissful and powerful yet then you down and break you into a million pieces. I can see all of these things in this killer’s hands.
I have no doubt he could make me feel worshipped if he were to touch me in the throes of passion. I would come completely undone, screaming out in absolute pleasure. His hands would make me ache with need as they tormented me with every sensual move. But I have never seen that side of his hands before. I have only felt the pain. I get a twinge in my ribs when I recall Nikolai punching me in my side.
“Josslyn,” Nikolai says, interrupting my thoughts.
My eyes lift, connecting back with his, and my face becomes hard once again.
“Like I was saying, I didn’t know who you were other than a pain-in-the-ass police detective. That was, until you were in my grasp. Once I had you there, I knew exactly who you were and how you would be of use to me.”
I’m going crazy sitting across from him. I can’t concentrate. The electricity between us is sparking me into a frazzled state and pulling my mind and body in two different directions. My mind is telling me to walk out, forget the information he knows about my father, and let him rot in hell where he belongs. However, my body and heart are telling me, if I don’t at least hear him out, I will never be able to live with the knowledge he is that missing link between me and my father’s killers. I owe it to my dad to take down the men who took him away from me. I owe it to my mother who had to lie next to her husband as he was stabbed more than twenty times and helplessly listen to her daughter as she begged for the men to stop hurting her. And I owe it to myself.
Those men took everything from me. They drastically altered my future and turned me into a withdrawn, vengeful person. They are the reason I hardly trust a soul and the reason I will never have a normal life.
The hateful feelings boil to the surface, and my face ignites in a furious heat. I can feel the agony of my loss and the anger clawing their way out of my body. And before I can control myself, I lose all composure.
“Spit it out! What do you know about my father?” I shout in pure rage.
I’m done with this game. I need to know the details or if this is all a mind-fuck to torment me again. I just need to know! I can’t sit here and be toyed with for another moment. I’m seconds away from loading my gun and blasting his face off. Actually, I want to leave this room and forget I even know who he is.
“In time.” He smirks again, pushing the rage to the edge of exploding out of me. “Patience is a skill you have not mastered, have you, my dear?”
“Shut up and tell me what you know!” My chest is contracting angrily as I demand for answers through gritted teeth.
“Josslyn, I will tell you now that I don’t do well with someone screaming at me. It would be wise for you to remember that.”
I combust.
Swiping my arm across the table, I push all the contents to the floor, and they fall with a loud clatter.
“Fuck you!” I scream as I lean over close to his face.
Before I have time to react, Nikolai strikes. He comes across the table, his cuffed hands gripping my throat as he yanks me up from my chair. My ribs scream out in agony as he pulls me to my feet and across the table.
It’s ironic how moments ago, I was thinking about his hands and how they could destroy me, and here we are.
I’m slammed hard into the table, his hands wrapped tightly around my throat, and all the air starts to disappear. He is destroying me. My will. My sanity. And now, my life.
His face is murderous, his eyes so blue and cold. I can see the assassin in him. I can sense the joy he gets from holding someone’s life in the palm of his hands. He’s a psychopath and will never stop killing. He enjoys it far too much.
Nikolai squeezes more tightly. My eyes feel like they are bulging from my skull as water leaks from my sockets and trickles down the sides of my face. I need to fight him. I will not let him do this to me again. I will not be a victim … ever.
I bring my left hand up, swinging it toward his face, but he reacts stealthily as he frees my neck and catches my angry fist. I start to roll off the table, finally free from his grasp, yet Nikolai is too quick. He snatches me again and leans over on my midsection with his own body, trapping me in place. I’m in the same position as I was not more than twelve hours ago, pinned down. While he holds me captive underneath his taut body, I feel one hundred percent helpless. I’m trapped by his frame, but I feel more trapped by his eyes. They are breaking me from the inside, almost charming me into submission. I feel powerless against them.
“Like I said,”—Nikolai leans down and puts his face dangerously close to mine—“I will not tolerate your toddler-like tantrums.”
His addictive scent dances through the air between us. My skin tingles as the familiarity of my ordeal comes crashing down on me like a rogue tidal wave. If I close my eyes, I could swear I’m lying on that dingy factory floor. And I could swear he is about to press his lips to mine, leaving me spellbound in his wake.
Nikolai bring his lips down, brushing against my ear, and whispers, “I can see what I do to you, Josslyn. I see the hate you have for me in your eyes, but your body tells me something else entirely. Your breath gets caught in the back of your throat as your cheeks flush with a rush of excitement. I can feel your skin sizzle with anticipation.”
He keeps me pinned under his body while I find it impossible to keep my own body from betraying me. My insides ignite, and beads of nervous yet aroused sweat start to form over my body.
“It feels good, doesn’t it? The hate? Hold tightly to it, Josslyn. Understand what that sensation is capable of. You must embrace your hate for men like me. Feed and nurture it as it consumes you from the inside. There will come a time when you’re finally standing across
from the one person you despise the most in this world, and it will be the hate that finally sets you free.”
He keeps me underneath him for a few more seconds before the weight of his body is gone, and I’m left spinning. The table creaks as I quickly slide my body off the top and back into my chair. I can’t say a damn word. I have no idea why he does this to me. Ever since I was fourteen, a man on top of me has always sent me into a state of panic, but once Nikolai touches me, I forget all the fear and melt into a puddle underneath him.
Like Nikolai is reading my thoughts, he speaks the very same thoughts bouncing around in my brain. “So tell me this, detective. How is it that you can tolerate my touch, but I get the feeling that’s not the case with every man, especially considering what happened to you.”
My stomach sinks to my feet. How does he know what happened to me? He told me he knew about my father, but how would he know about me?
“H-how …?” It’s all I can muster.
“Secrets, Josslyn.” He taps the side of his head and smirks once again. “I hold so many secrets, and the night your father died is one of the biggest I possess.”
I clear my throat, my head spinning from the moment. Although I want to hear what he knows, my mind is still circling around what he knows about me. Unless he knows the people who were there … No, that’s impossible. He would have been a teenager the night that happened.
“Please, just tell me what you know,” I beg. My mind can’t take the back and forth anymore. I’m reeling.
“Like I said, Josslyn. You’ll get that information in time. First, I need to know we have an understanding when it comes to how you’ll handle the information I share with you.” He leans back and assesses me. The smirk falls back into place, and all composure is lost.
Now it’s me who comes across the table; only, it’s out of pure hate for this man. I leap from my chair and send it crashing down to the floor. Like a rabid beast, I lunge toward his body, knocking him back in the process and landing on top of him.
Hate. All I feel is hate. He wanted me to tap into it … Well, I’m officially plugged in, and my voltage is set to destroy.
Adrenaline causes me to ignore the pain in my side as I wrench my fist back and hit him again and again. However, I only get a couple of punches in before he captures my wrists. Stupidity swarms me as I realize I’m in the worst possible situation right now.
He swiftly rolls my body over, pushing my back into the concrete floor and holding me prisoner with his body. A furious rage consumes his face. His mouth sets in a firm line, his jaw clenched in anger, as he glares at me with cold eyes. Nikolai is moments away from either killing me or ravaging me. I’m living on the edge of that cliff, and I’m fighting with myself not to fall over the precipice.
When Nikolai releases me enough for my leg to get free, I jerk my knee up and slam it into the side of his kidney. I seize the opportunity and roll back on top of him. My fist starts flying again, but he knows better and snatches it in his grasp once again. I knew he was agile, but I didn’t think he was skilled enough to do this shackled. I can’t imagine how deadly his hands are when they have free reign.
I jerk my elbows back, fighting to get out of his grasp, when two strong hands come around my midsection and yank me off Nikolai’s body.
I scream out in agony as Gabe pulls me from the floor and behind his muscular body. He then leans down, yanking Nikolai up by his throat. He pushes Nikolai into the wall behind him, slamming him hard into the cinderblock wall before pulling forward and slamming him again. Nikolai could easily take Gabe down. He’s proved he’s fast and smart in situations where he is backed into a corner. But he allows Gabe to dominate him.
“I will kill you, motherfucker!” Gabe screams at Nikolai, his face turning red with fury.
The pain subsides enough for me to try to break up the intensity of the moment. Gabe is unhinged right now, and I could easily see him choking the life out of Nikolai. I’m starting to walk toward them when Lieutenant Ortiz storms through the door.
“O’Connor!” he shouts, and Gabe quickly lets go of Nikolai’s throat.
Nikolai shakes his head out, his eyes a cool, liquid heat and furious. I can tell it took a lot for him to remain reserved with his actions.
“I’m not sure what kind of operation you’re trying to run, lieutenant, but I’m quite certain this is against protocol. I think I would like to speak to my lawyer now,” Nikolai responds as he sits back in the chair and waits for his demands to be met.
CHAPTER SIX
Nikolai
August 9, 2015 4:51 p.m.
My blood is boiling as rapidly as an erupting volcano. His grip is tight around my neck as he squeezes my airway. His eyes are fueled by revulsion. The gorilla-sized detective pushes me harder into the wall, slamming my frame against the concrete. The contact sends a jolt down my spine, but I absorb the pain, save it for another day when it will be of use to me.
I could easily take him down with one sweep of my leg and then eliminate him with a snap of his neck. Or I could slam my foot into his throat, crushing his windpipe instantly. However, that would not play into my plan. That doesn’t make it any easier to withhold the craving to ram my eight-inch Bowie knife through the side of his neck.
The detective slams me again, and I smile. The sight of his carotid artery spurting blood at my feet would give me great joy, and the vision takes all my rage away.
I don’t think I want him dead, not just yet. If, for whatever reason, I need him to do something for me, I could easily make him my puppet simply by threatening Josslyn’s life. He would lay his own life down to protect her. This was very apparent when I watched him hold her. The sight pissed me off, but it was enlightening.
And with perfect timing, his commanding officer comes barging in. I make the threat, and now there is nothing the department can do. Vankin will see to it that O’Connor is suspended, and I will have him out of the way.
The transport team comes almost immediately after the lieutenant hangs up the phone. Josslyn looks at me and I at her as I’m ushered out of the room. She looks puzzled yet frightened. She knows what am I’m capable of.
As I walk out, I say, “Till we meet again, my dear.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Josslyn
August 9, 2015 4:59 p.m.
“What were you thinking?” Gabe shouts. “Why the hell would you be alone with that lunatic?” He’s pacing in the interrogation room, shaking his arms and trying to get himself to calm down. “You’ve got to be out of your mind to spend another second alone with him!”
Visibly pissed, Gabe kicks the metal chair sending it flying across the room. My shoulders jump from his outburst and the loud sound of the chair colliding with the exterior wall. Man, this really hasn’t been his week.
Nikolai is a manipulator and superb at pulling the fury out of anyone. That is as plain as the hobbled chair in the corner.
Gabe should know he’s in deep water with our boss. One of the most obvious yet impossible duties of a police detective is to never touch the person sitting across from you. You sit across from some of the worst people in humanity. They can shout insult after insult or spit in your face, and it’s your job to remain composed enough not to harm them. If you have to, excuse yourself from the room, leave the scene, and go punch something or go scream in the bathroom until you’re hoarse with rage. You can’t break the cardinal rule of interrogation. You never put your hands on your interrogatee.
Luckily for him, the video camera was off, but there were witnesses. Now his squeaky clean record will be tarnished. Poor guy. The sooner we get rid of this Nikolai problem, the sooner he’ll be back to his old self and myself included.
I slowly kneel down on the floor and start picking up all the random items I pushed off the table then stuff them back into my bag. I wrap one arm around my midsection, trying to ease the pain.
Gabe sees me struggling and calms down enough to help me. He pulls the gun from the pile of miscell
aneous items and gives me the evil eye. I don’t see it, but I can feel it penetrating right through me. His daggers are stabbing worse than the ache in my ribs.
I hold the table and use it to guide me to my feet. Then Gabe links his arm under mine, easing me up the rest of the way. I hate being coddled. It was okay at first when I was in shock after what I went through at The Ruins, but I can’t stand it now. He’s getting too protective, too clingy, and that’s not his job. It’s mine.
“Just stop.” My voice is harsh as I yank my bag out of his hands. “I don’t need you babysitting me. I’m fine, and if I want to interview him, then that is my business.” I sling my bag over my shoulder and shake off all the intruding thoughts of what little information Nikolai shared.
When I was his captive, all he spoke about really was who he was. But I said nothing. It was him who spoke so candidly about his past and his family. It was Nikolai who shared what his final plan would be with the man who had wronged him. I only pushed for more answers, and I got them. He gave me a full confession to killing the unknown men by the ports, saying he did it out of revenge for what they had done to his brother’s family.
I have to get out of here. I need to start looking into Nikolai Petrov to see what I can dig up. My gut is telling me it won’t be much, but there has to be something out there. Plus, I have his brother’s real name. Maybe I can find some link connecting all of this. There has to be a piece of information recognizable to someone who is privy to the private details no one else has—someone like me. I have to find out what Nikolai is talking about. If I can find that one clue, maybe I can fully understand this connection he has to my father’s murder.
I’m starting to walk out the door when Gabe snags my elbow. “Hey.” His eyes are tame, and he looks hurt from my harsh words. “Please don’t push me out, Joss. I can help you. I want to help you.”
Away with You (The Revenge Series Book 2) Page 5
