47. I watch her
FORTY-SEVEN
I WATCH HER
Alessio
Two weeks later
“I’m interested in the part of your story where you say the assassin barged into the hotel room,” Special Agent Koriski says to Lake, who sits across from him in the interrogation room. Today, she wears her hair down, her curls still partially wet from the shower she took a few hours ago before she came in for the interview.
It’s her third one this week now that she’s home in Louisville. And doing well without me. Clearly, she doesn’t need me, but I can’t stop looking after her. Her feelings for me are hers to bear. I have my own feelings I’m dealing with, and they’re different. I love her, and I’ll leave her alone as soon as I’m able to deal with the fact that she wants nothing to do with me.
For now, I obsess. I watch. I help.
After the extraction, Niksha and his team took Lake to a safe location, where agents debriefed her before allowing her to clean up and board the plane home. Her uncle recovered from when he “stumbled” down the stairs. The man might recall that someone pushed him, but for now, he’s obliviously happy he’s better. He thinks he’s getting too old for the townhome and is selling it now.
I think he wants an excuse to move closer to his ex-wife, who’s been doting on him since he got out of the hospital. He’s taking advantage of the attention. Good for him.
Lake’s been resting a lot. Sleeping, mainly. I don’t blame her. She’s gone through a lot.
“I already told you everything yesterday.”
Niksha and his team trained Lake on what she could and couldn’t say to local law enforcement or the feds. Although the agencies play on the same team, US intelligence operates differently from law enforcement. The intelligence agents don’t enforce laws. They enforce the interests of their country.
“I have it on good authority that you were rescued by a foreign operative. Perhaps more than one. We’re concerned they’re working in the country.”
“A Delta team rescued me,” she says.
From the other side of the interrogation room’s glass window, I smile at her tone. She’s annoyed.
“But you don’t deny you met with a foreign operative?” the agent asks.
“If I met one, I wouldn’t know since I’m pretty sure such a person would hide their identity. Unless you can offer a definition of foreign operative that’s different from mine.”
Koriski narrows his eyes. “Is that a no?”
“It’s a request for a definition of an operative so that I can answer your question.”
“Did you meet and have a love affair with a foreigner during your stay overseas?”
“Respectfully, that’s none of your business. I worked as a journalist and a governess.”
“You worked as a governess for a private citizen, yes? One Alessio Angelini?”
Lake looks away. “Yes.”
“Uh-oh,” Niksha murmurs from where he’s standing beside me.
“Can you tell me about him?”
She sighs. “What do you want to know?”
“What’s he do for a living?”
She shrugs. “He makes money for a living.”
“Ms. Wilder, you’ll have better luck with me if you’re less sassy.”
“I’m telling you the truth. Alessio Angelini makes money for a living.”
“Yes, but doing what?”
“I have no idea. He speaks to people on the phone a lot.”
The agent opens a folder and pulls out a picture. He pushes it toward her. “Does he speak to this man?”
Lake leans in, looks over the image, and leans back. “Sure.”
“What’s she doing?” Niksha bites out. “We need to intervene.” He moves toward the door, but I stop him.
“Give her a minute.”
“She can’t be trusted.”
“She deceived me. I want to know what she’ll do now.”
“For the record,” the agent says, “you can identify the man in the picture?”
“I can say that Alessio spoke to people on the phone and that one of those people could have been the man in the picture. It could also be you. It could also be the two guards outside.”
She makes me hard.
Koriski grinds his teeth. “Ms. Wilder, I know you know who this man is.” He points at us behind the glass. “He’s an operative working with your ex-boss, and we need you to identify him.”
Lake follows the direction where the detective is pointing, but from her perspective, it’s just mirrored glass. “Alessio is here?”
“Spotted this morning. Along with a CIA operative.”
“CIA? That doesn’t sound foreign.”
“We think he’s a double agent.”
Lake rises and walks to the mirror. “I can’t help you there.” She blows a hot breath onto the mirror and draws a little heart, but quickly wipes it away before sitting back down.
“Did she draw a heart?” I ask Niksha.
“I thought it was a dick.”
Oh. Well, that’s a possibility too.
“I wish I could help your investigation, but I spent most of my time working as a governess, and Mr. Angelini, while in the house, spent his days in his office. He often spoke in foreign languages. Even if I overheard his conversations, I wouldn’t understand them. Can I go home now?”
Niksha says, “Good girl.”
“I’ll rip your tongue out if you call her good girl again.”
“Alessio, she lied to you.”
“She lied about loving me but she’s protecting me and my family.” Lake knows almost everything about the crisis we barely averted. She knows I dealt with dangerous men and with world leaders who weren’t supposed to deal with those men at all.
She also knows what Miro looks like and what he can do. She’s a witness he kept alive for me to do with what I will. I let Lake live.
She might’ve lied about loving me to save her life or to express a feeling that wasn’t true while I fucked her and while her emotions ran high, but Lake continues to keep her mouth shut on all the business that had to do with my family.
“If Mr. Angelini is here, why aren’t you interrogating him?” she asks the agent.
“Better get the lawyers in there now,” Niksha says.
“I need to know where she’s taking this.”
“I’m stretched with resources here and have very few connections. This isn’t funny.”
“Shhh,” I shush him. “Let me hear.”
“Do you think I should be interrogating him?” the agent asks.
“You want to know what he does for a living? Ask him.”
The agent smiles. “I wish I could, but Mr. Angelini is well-connected.”
“But I’m not, so you’re interrogating me.”
Now Koriski shifts in the chair. “That’s not why. We thought you’d be helpful.”
“I would be if I could.”
“Let’s talk about your impressions of your boss. What is your impression of him? What kind of a man is he?”
Lake picks at the sleeve of her matcha-green cardigan. This color looks nice on her. “He’s a family man.”
“I’m sure there’s more you can tell me about his character.”
“He’s a no-nonsense workaholic. Assertive.”
“Aggressive?”
She nods. “If you push him.”
“Manipulative?”
Lake starts to cry. “You don’t want to hear what my impression of him is. You want me to tell you what you want to hear. Okay, I’ll do it. What do you want me to say? That he’s a jerk who was mean to me? That the money he works so hard for, he spends on luxuries most of us will never be able to afford? Fine, I’ll tell you that. But you should know that my impression of men is often wrong.” She leans over the desk, tears running down her cheeks. “When I first met Landon, my ex, my impression of him was that he was a great guy who was going to take care of me while I took care of him. One night, he came home real late, and I pretended I was asleep because that morning I figured out that he’d replaced my birth control with a placebo. Well, he brought another man into the bedroom and told me he wanted to watch us fuck. Let me tell you, Agent Koriski, my impression of men is often wrong.”
I dial the lawyers. “Make sure Ms. Wilder isn’t bothered again.”
I look over at Niksha, who says, “I’ll deal with the ex.”