Chapter 30 Late Night Confessions #2
He reached out and touched it with his free hand.
“It was the first thing I noticed about you that day at Bubblegum. You were standing in line, glaring, and I caught sight of this…” he twirled a strand around his gloved finger.
“It reminds me of a crescent moon, only a sliver of light left to keep you company on long nights.” His voice softened, eyes unfocused as if he was reminiscing something else.
“And there are many nights where most of you is hidden. Untrustworthy.”
“Some might see that as a warning.”
“I should’ve…”
“Your father teach you to nurture that kind of negligence?” she asked, fire in her eyes and in her heart.
Mikko huffed. “He taught me to be unwavering. Although I might’ve misconstrued his teachings when I channeled it into going after the things I wanted.”
“Which is?”
“You.”
She swallowed, speechless. Pressed to her very center, he tied each wrist to an arm of the chair.
Every movement had her skin tingling. She was painfully aware of every inch where they touched.
Warmth rushed to her cheeks, anger blossoming in her face.
But beneath that, there was something else.
An edge she’d refused to examine—a void that was sick and twisted.
“That’s a weak explanation,” she countered breathily, unwilling to acknowledge what he’d said fully.
“When you start cooperating, I’ll give you a better o—”
“Wha–I am. I’m in this damn chair, aren’t I?”
“Small wins.”
Anika clamped her jaw tight, tipped her head back, and focused on breathing through her nose. The small breaths she expelled only semi-distracted her. If she started ruminating on the fact that her body was reacting differently than what she wanted, she wouldn’t make it out of this whole.
Satisfied with his work, he leaned back
“If you wanted to tie me up, you could’ve asked,” Anika said, needing to break the silence. “I’ll try anything once.”
He chuckled, the noise slightly muffled from his mask. “I thought Levi did that ‘all on his own.’”
“He does.” She cocked her head. “Do you want all the explicit details?”
The corners of Mikko’s eyes crinkled in distaste. “There’s nothing to tell.”
“And how would you know?”
His fingers tightened around her legs as his eyes glinted with mischievousness. “There’s nothing I don’t know about you.”
“Lies.” The heat of him between her legs was distracting. “If you truly knew, you would’ve killed me already.”
“I have better uses for you than death, malyshka. Don’t play coy with me,” he gritted out.
“And here I thought you’d figured it out by yourself, you smart, little daddy’s boy.”
Lie. Lie. Lie.
“Where did you put Ivan’s eyes?”
“This again?” she scoffed, narrowing her eyes up at him. “Nowhere.”
“Stop lying to me!” He abruptly stood, hands in her hair before she could even attempt to fend him off. Sparks of pain tingled across her scalp, a yelp echoing out of her throat as he bent her head back. Again.
Squinting up at him, Anika sneered. “It’s not a lie,” he pulled harder, tears pricking the corners of her eyes, “it’s an omission. Maybe if you actually read the file your friend pulled on me, you wouldn’t be so daft. No wonder Alek—”
“You think you’re so smart, don’t you?” he snarled, but his grip loosened. She’d surprised him with that little piece of intel. “But I see right through you.”
“You see what I want you to see, but you’re too dense to realize that,” Anika spat back at him. “Why do you think it took so long for us to end up here? Because that’s what I wanted.”
“Shut up—”
“Ask your friend, the one with the different hair color every other week,” she continued, “I’m sure he’ll tell you.”
“Don’t bring him into this, I swear…”
“My house, my rules.”
Releasing her, he stepped back. He was fuming, and she could feel the anger coming off him in waves, but she didn’t care. It felt good to get under his skin and make him uncomfortable in return.
Finally able to take a deep breath, she choked down air still tainted with his cologne.
“I know you left your spare key out for me,” he countered.
“I–what?”
Mikko kept talking, anger making his tongue loose. “You invited me in, targeted me first—don’t forget that.”
“I did no such thing,” she lied.
“Shut up.”
“No.”
Slipping the gun from his waistband, he aimed it at her again. “Maybe I don’t have a better use for you…maybe I should shoot you right now.”
Anika cocked her head. “Go on—kill me.” His silence made her smile. “You seem to crave violence so much, yearn to see me dead, then do it. Give in. Be just like daddy dearest.”
His jaw ticked. “Only after you tell me where Ivan’s eyes are. Where Dimitri is.”
She laughed manically.
“You might fight it now, Anika, but I can be patient. I’ll wait for you to come around.”
She composed herself enough to respond. “I won’t.”
Stooping to her level, he wedged himself between her bound legs once more, the action mimicking vulnerability, but she didn’t fall for it.
Bringing the gun in close, Mikko pushed it into her sternum.
“You’re a bad habit.” She swallowed thickly.
“And you know what I do to bad habits?” Mikko asked, his other hand dragging down her thigh toward her knee, “I break them.”
Anika shook her head. “Is that what happened to Samantha? Did you break her?”
His body stiffened at the mention of his high school girlfriend’s name. “My father did that for me.”
“Of course, he did everything for you. What about Ellie?”
He laughed, the sound more relaxed than moments before, his emotions were a rollercoaster that Anika was finding hard to follow. His gloved hand traced a lazy circle around her kneecap while she clenched her teeth, fighting the urge to gasp.
Damn this toxic connection.
His closeness, her anger, and the adrenaline coursing through her was doing weird things to her brain and body. Heat blazed across her skin making her mind dizzy.
“She decided I was…too much for her tastes,” he finally answered.
“You make it sound so simple. So innocent.”
“It was. She left quietly.”
“How much did you pay her? Did you steal her clothes too? Break into her house?” Anika’s words were steady despite the fury building inside her. Along with something else…
“You’d be surprised what I can convince people to do.” His hand was still leisurely touching her.
“I’m not like the people you deal with.”
“No?” A tense pause, then, “Maybe you’re right, maybe you’re worse.”
Anika scoffed. “How has no one shot you yet?”
“Oh, they have, but they haven’t been successful beyond anything merely superficial.”
“Let me try then, professor,” she murmured.
His breathy chuckle at the nickname made her gaze cut up to his awaiting one. “Maybe one day I’ll let you.”
Anika’s lips pressed together tightly, everything leading her to this moment threatening to spill out.
With that, he reached back over to the table, setting the gun down and grabbing a roll of duct tape. “But now that you’ve gotten all that out of your system, I think”—the sound of tape ripping free of its backing echoed in her kitchen—“it’s time for this.”
Anika’s spine stiffened against the chair. “I thought this was an interrogation…which involves talking?”
“I can’t have you screaming and alerting all your neighbors now, can I?” The sticky piece of tape he held plastered itself over her mouth before she could spit at him. Her mumbled curses were trapped behind the tape.
What a dick.
“Did you ever ask Ivan how he felt when he was in this position weeks ago?” Silenced, Anika sat there, waiting. His green eyes roved over her, the feeling burning her skin as if he was physically still touching her. “Last time I saw him, this was how he looked.”
“I didn’t kill him,” but the words were muffled, indiscernible.
“I’m going to ask you again, Ms. Naidu—a yes or no question—if you killed Ivan.” He caressed the rope binding her wrists as if to remind her she was at his mercy.
She shook her head.
“Really?” Her brow raised in question, mute while he continued. “Because when I ran a background check on you it came back clean. Too clean if you ask me, but Cristiano has called me paranoid before, so I ignored it…for a while.
“Until the other morning. I was lying awake in bed when it hit me. Why is a seemingly nice young woman like you in all the places I’m at? Why would someone with a squeaky clean background, such as yours, wander into my club, tour one of my warehouses, date one of my men?”
Anika could feel the angst rolling off him in waves. Muttering incoherent sentences against the tape, she tried to wordlessly explain herself. His head cocked, a wicked glint evident in his eyes. While every other piece of him was covered, all she needed was this—eyes told everything.
“No one with a decent personal history, or self respect for that matter, would date Levi—would come around someone like me. So, what are you hiding, Anika? What plans are you brewing up in this pretty little head?” A gloved fingertip tapped her temple.
“I’m feeling nice and want to give you this moment to come clean before I read your file myself.
A little test to determine your trustworthiness, if you will. ”
Wiggling in the chair, she wrenched her eyes shut, desperately wishing to speak, to curse, to attack. But nothing. Mikko watched her struggle as if this was comical to him. Maybe it was, and that made Anika’s blood run hot.
“Did someone put you up to this?” he placed his hands on top of her forearms, pinning her in place even more than she already was. “One of my own men?”
With a furrowed brow, Anika shook her head. She would not allow for a man to take credit for her work.
“Persistence is as much a virtue as patience, Anika. And I will find out why you singled me out; it’s only a matter of time.”
“Time you don’t have,” she mumbled behind the tape.
Despite her wrists being leashed to the chair, she managed to flip him off with vigor.