Chapter 24 – Karik
“You lied to me,” she blurted out, hands on my table, eyes pinned on me. “Why?”
Was that pain in her voice?
Why was she making a big deal out of this, like I stabbed her in the back or something?
“Depends on your definition of lying,” I said softly, leaning back in my chair.
“Don’t do that,” she warned, her expression dark. “Don’t try to water this down and act like you don’t know what you did.”
“Please, by all means…enlighten me.”
“You lied to me about the Vetrov case.”
“I did not.”
She straightened, arms across her chest. “Yeah, but you didn’t tell me the whole truth either.”
“Which is it?” I asked, looking right at her. “Did I lie, or did I just not tell you the whole truth?”
A pause.
“Were you ever gonna tell me?” She held my gaze, her voice low and even. “If I hadn’t found out on my own, would you ever have set the record straight?”
I stared at her in silence, trying to understand why she was treating this like a betrayal.
She leaned in, a hint of pain and disappointment flickering in her eyes. “Would you have ever told me that you were the mastermind behind it all?”
I didn’t respond.
“Would you have told me that you were the one who ordered the bombing of the warehouse?” she continued. “That using Vetrov’s situation to clean up your mess was your idea?” Her voice rose with each syllable.
Silence.
Her words and the emotional weight they carried landed more heavily than I thought.
“What difference would it make? It wouldn’t change anything—”
“Then why did you lie?” she cut me off, eyes flashing with defiance. “Why did you keep that part from me if you truly believe what you just said?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Maybe it doesn’t to you—but to me, it does!” she raised her voice. “I need to know what kind of man I’m dealing with!”
And just like that, something snapped inside me.
“Damn it, Ellie!” I banged both hands on the table, reflexively springing to my feet. “You know exactly the kind of man you’re dealing with!” My voice rose, echoing off the walls.
She flinched at first, shocked by my reaction, but she showed no sign of fear. She stood her ground, holding my gaze even as I walked around my desk.
“I’m a monster!” I continued, approaching her with slow, menacing steps. “The devil everyone knows. I’m a viper who strikes even when I don’t intend to.” The words tumbled out of me in a frantic rush.
She blinked a few times but didn’t retreat.
“You said it yourself: I derive pleasure from other people’s suffering. So why the fuck are you surprised that I kept that important detail from you?”
She locked her jaw, her chest heaving with ragged breaths. The gap between us was thin, and the tension in the air was growing by the second.
“Since you’re so tough, tell me,” she said, staring into my eyes. “Why is Vetrov the only one paying for your mistake?”
My expression turned ugly.
“He wasn’t even the target. He was just the available substitute to take the blame.” She took one step further. “My question is, why is he serving time while the real target is still in the wind?”
My fingers curled into fists at my sides.
“From what’s in that file, Niklaus Varro seems to always be two steps ahead of you,” she said, her tone sharp as a knife. “That’s why you still haven’t caught him even after all these years.”
“Careful now,” I growled, jaw locked in place.
“Why?” she shot back. “Is the truth too hard a pill for you to swallow?”
I seethed in silence, struggling to suppress my fury. She just reminded me of my incompetence in catching that son of a bitch. My anger was mostly directed at myself, not her.
“A harmless man is behind bars while a dangerous criminal walks free,” she said. “This whole thing was your idea, and the longer Varro is in the wind, the more it looks like you failed.”
Those words stung like a nasty bee.
“So fix it. Find that bastard,” she said, her voice much calmer. “He’s not smarter than you.”
She held my gaze for a moment before turning around to leave. I stood there in the stillness, overwhelmed with a mix of emotions. Ellie had just challenged me in a way no one ever had.
She called out my incompetence and opened my eyes to the truth I hadn’t faced in years. Varro’s ability to always slip through my fingers was painting a picture that was bad for my reputation.
The bastard was very good at hiding from everyone. He was smart. But she was right. I was smarter. He’d been in the wind for far too long now. It was time I channeled all resources into finding him.
As much as her words struck me like a dagger to the chest, it was the wake-up call I didn’t realize I needed.
“He’s not smarter than you,” that sentence echoed in my head, a reminder of how she dismantled me and rebuilt me in the same breath.
Ellie’s bravery and the way she stood her ground despite my intimidating gaze were impressive. It was almost like she’d finally understood who she was and the weight of the name she now carried.
When she spoke, she didn’t mince her words or try to sugarcoat them. She told me the bitter truth and didn’t give a shit whether I wanted to hear it or not.
Good.
My influence was starting to rub off on her.
However, one question still lingered on my mind. Why was she so angry that I lied to her? Why did my lack of transparency hurt her so much?
It wasn’t like she was beginning to care about me.
She wasn’t, was she?