Chapter 5
A lexander will owe me a hell of a lot more than a favor by the time I get this woman home.
Tightening the grip on the steering wheel, I hit the gas. The faster we get to the airport and on a fucking plane, the sooner I can get this woman off my hands.
And out of my head.
“You realize security is not going to let me through with your belt around my wrists,” she says from the passenger seat where she’s leaning her head against the window.
There’s no way for her to get comfortable with her hands behind her back like this. Her shoulders are going to be sore. I grit my teeth. She deserves more than sore shoulders for running from me .
And then she throws things at me!
If we didn’t have a plane to catch, I would have thrown her over the edge of the counter and used my belt for something else entirely.
Maybe I still will.
“I’ll release your hands when we get there. And you’re going to be a good girl and get through the checkpoints without causing trouble.” I throw her a glare that should push her into submission.
Most men cower when my irritation grows to this level.
But not Mira. This woman seems to have a spine of steel. Maybe being on the run for six months has hardened her.
She laughs. “Sure. I’ll just walk right through and won’t tell them that you’re kidnapping me to deliver me to some mafia drug lord.”
I frown. “Alexander isn’t a drug lord.”
She wiggles in her seat. “I meant Marco.”
“I already told you where I’m taking you.”
“And I have no reason to believe you or cooperate with you.” She twists enough to shoot a glare of her own at me.
It makes her eyes light up, this fire in her. Her dark eyebrows lift into little peaks over her blue eyes.
“You do.” I nod, turning my attention back to the traffic leading us into the small airport.
“Really? And why’s that?”
“One way or another you’re going home. The harder you make it, the worse it will be for you. If you want to try and get innocent people involved, then anything that happens to them as a result is on you. ”
I change lanes so I can pull into a parking lot. I’ll need to get my belt off her wrists before she gets out of the car.
She thinks over what I said and turns back around to face forward. From her profile I can see she’s chewing on the inside of her cheek.
“Sasha.” I answer my phone in Russian as soon I see it’s him calling.
“Are you at the airport yet?”
“Just pulling into the parking lot now. Why?”
“There’s a problem. She’s been put on the no-fly list. If you try to get her through security with her own identification, they’ll flag her and detain.”
“Detain? Why detain?”
“The notes say to detain and contact Detective James Calloway for further instruction.”
“All right.” This night is getting even longer. “And how is our other friend? Is he holding tight still?”
“No movement so far.”
“Fine. I’ll have to deal with him on my way.”
“With the girl?”
“How long do you think he’ll be there? If I wait any longer, he’ll fly the coop again.”
“True. Need anything else from me on this?” Sasha’s a good friend, but he has too much of his own shit to handle.
“No. I have it from here.” I end the call, changing lanes again toward the exit from the airport.
Mira leans forward to watch a plane that’s taking off. The blinking lights on the wings are bright against the dark night sky .
“What are you doing? The parking lot is over there?”
“Who is Detective Calloway?” I ask her.
She sighs. “An annoying police officer. Why?”
“He’s put you on the no-fly list. You can’t get on a plane.”
“What? Why would he do that? Does he know where I am?” She frantically looks out the windows as though he’s right outside the car.
“I don’t know. But he doesn’t just want you not to fly, he wants them to hold you. What does he want from you, Mira?”
“Answers I won’t give him.” She puts her head back against the headrest and closes her eyes. “But if Marco finds out he’s still trying to talk to me, Marco will never leave me alone. Even after I pay him what I owe him.”
“He thinks you’re telling this detective about something? What is it?” We’re out of the airport and back on the highway, heading east toward home.
Instead of a two-hour flight, we’re going to be stuck together for fifteen hours in this car. Enough time for her to spill all her secrets.
“This Alexander guy didn’t tell you?”
“No, you’re going to tell me.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” She squirms in her seat again. “Can you pull over and get this off me?”
“Not yet. What does Marco think you’re going to tell the detective? About his drug dealing? I doubt it’s a secret from the police at this point. Marco isn’t exactly very good at keeping his business hidden. ”
“You know him that well?” She sighs and rolls her head like she’s trying to work out a kink in her neck.
“Don’t distract from the question. What does he think you’ll tell the detective?”
“I’m not talking to you until you take this off.” She closes her eyes, like she’s just going to ignore me.
“I can make you tell me.” I almost want her to push me harder.
No man has ever gotten away without telling me everything I wanted to know. She has no chance of being the first.
“Oh? How?” She huffs, still pretending like she’s going to sleep. “Are you going to tie me up and kidnap me some more?”
“The last time I had to ask a question more than once, I removed his fingernails until he gave me every bit of information I wanted.” I pause a moment. “And when he was finished, I cut out his tongue.”
The man facilitated the sale of a young girl to the DeAngelo pleasure houses. He deserved worse than the loss of his tongue and the few broken bones I handed him back over with, but the father of the girl wanted to finish the job.
“You’re insane.” She stares at me with wide eyes.
“Are you going to tell me, or should I pull over so we can get started on the interrogation?” I nod toward emptiness around us.
The traffic has thinned to almost none now that we’re driving through a rural area. There’s nothing but farmland on both sides of the highway. No one would hear her screaming if I pulled over .
“He killed my boyfriend,” she says softly, turning her back on me as best she can given her positioning. “Shot him right in front of me.”
I grip the steering wheel tighter, waiting for her to continue. After moments go by, I realize she’s not offering anything else.
“Why did he do that?”
“Kill Nico? Because he was stupid enough to think he could sell Marco’s garbage and keep some of the money for himself. He tried telling Marco he’d gotten robbed and dragged me with him so I could back up his claim. Nico thought he’d be safe if I was there.”
My jaw tightens.
“He brought you to meet Marco after he’d stolen from him?” He’d tried to use her as a human shield, but Marco doesn’t care who gets killed. A woman, a child, nothing means more than money to him.
“I pick some real winners,” she whispers but I think she’s taking to herself.
“And Marco let you go?”
“Yeah. He said if I paid the money back, I could avoid the same thing happening to me.”
“And that’s why you owe all the money you were sending back home?”
“Yes. But that stupid detective kept bothering me, and Marco was getting paranoid. Megan said I should leave town until it blew over. And like a coward I agreed. She’s been making the drops for me; that’s why I wire her the cash every month. ”
“She hasn’t gotten it in the last two, though.”
“And I don’t understand that.” She scoots her ass down on the seat and wiggles again, still unable to find a position that isn’t uncomfortable.
“Rurik.” She sighs my name like she’s admitting defeat in a war she’s been having with herself.
“Yeah?” I glance over at her.
“I have to pee.”
There isn’t another exit for twenty miles, but if she’s telling me she has to go, I’m sure she’s reached the emergency level of urgency.
“All right.” I slow the car and bring it over to the side of the road.
“What are you doing? Not here.” She sits up and peers out into the darkness.
“Where would you like to go, Princess?” I throw the car into park.
“To a gas station or something, not in an open field!”
“Well, there is no gas station or something around here. You’ll have to piss in the grass.” I gesture for her to get a move on.
“Fine.” She growls and twists around until her back is to me. Thrusting her wrists up at me as best she can. “Take it off.”
I laugh. “Not yet.”
“I have to pee,” she reiterates. “How can I do that with this on?”
“Good point.” I turn off the car just to be sure she’s not able to jump over the console and take off .
Not that she’d get far without the ability to control the wheel, but Mira is resourceful.
And she can’t be trusted yet.
When I open her door, she jumps down onto the grass, and I have to grab hold of her to keep her from falling on her face.
“Do you ever look before you jump?” I mutter, helping her walk a little ways away from the car.
Once we’re in the grass, I let her go. “All right. Go.”
There’s enough light from the interior of the car shining on her for me to make out her glower of annoyance.
“I need my hands, Rurik,” she demands.
“Right. Your pants.” I step up to her and grab hold of the front of her jeans.
Immediately, she tries to wiggle away, so I let her. She stumbles back then falls straight onto her ass.
She lands with a grunt.
“You asshole!”
Reaching down, I grab her arm and pull her back to her feet.
“If you’re going to fight my help, you won’t get any, and you can piss your pants.” I stand in front of her, staring down at her.
The top of her head barely reaches my chin. She’s a tiny little pixie with a slender build. No match for a man my size. Yet she fights me like she could slit my throat in my sleep.
Maybe she can. I’ll have to hide my knife.
“Fine.” She stands still while I unbutton and unzip her jeans. While I push them over the curves of her hips, she turns her face away. I can feel the blush on her cheeks as I bend lower to shove them all the way down to her ankles.
“Okay.”