Chapter 32
Ava
Raina stared me down from across the table. But the glint of fiery rebellion had left her eyes. Mordovia had broken something in her.
“Are you ready to talk, Raina?” Owen asked from beside me, his voice echoing off the cold walls of the interrogation room.
Raina’s hands were blue from the cold, but she did not shake. She did not take her eyes off me, nor acknowledge Owen’s question.
“How is it that you are still alive?” she asked me, genuine curiosity on her face.
“Oh, you mean, why hasn’t Grayson’s spy killed me?”
A cruel smile crawled onto Raina’s chapped, yet perfect lips—her skin splitting on her bottom lip. She licked at the blood.
Our suspicions were correct. She knew who Liam was. Which meant she was a goldmine of information when it came to Grayson. She had to know him better than even I did.
She flipped her dark, pin-straight ponytail over her shoulder. Her beauty still stunned me. A perfect addition to Grayson’s ever-growing collection.
“So you finally figured it out,” she mused, a bit of twinkle returning to her eyes. She clearly enjoyed knowing things I didn’t.
“A heads-up would have been nice, Raina,” Owen purred coldly, crossing his arms over his chest, glaring at her.
“And here I thought we were on the same side. You know, sisters in hate.” I held her cold stare. She was so much like Grayson.
Her grin broadened and she pulled her shoulders up.
“I tried to warn you, honey. It’s not my fault you were too stupid to understand.
Your thick head must have frustrated the living shit out of Grayson.
” She raised an eyebrow at me, her eyes inquisitive.
“But clearly you have some dumb luck. You still have your pretty face.”
She really was surprised to see me alive.
I fished my tinted lip balm out of my jean pocket and placed it on the table before her. “Let’s cut the bullshit, Raina. You know why we’re here. Give us Grayson and we can get you out of this godsforsaken hole.”
She stared at the lip balm but did not pick it up. Her tongue ran over her bottom lip, before her throat bobbed slowly. She did not speak. Only stared at the lip balm, unblinking.
And I knew we had her. My heart sped up. I leaned closer to her. “We can have you out of here, today,” I whispered.
Her eyes shifted to me. They were utterly defeated. “You can move me to space, and he will still find me.”
A chill ran up my spine. What if she wasn’t the love of Grayson’s life, like we believed? He would never leave Gemma to rot in Mordovia for this long. I had expected her to disappear already. But here she was, still stuck in hell.
Yet, she was still alive—someone who knew far more about the Apparitions than I did. And someone with far less protection than me. She was a talking-time bomb. Why would Grayson keep her alive if he did not care about her? And if he did care for her, why leave her here?
None of it made sense.
“Tell me how you know him,” Raina asked softly. “Everyone’s so quiet these days. No one dares speak about him right now. I haven’t been able to find out anything about you.” There were tears in her grey eyes.
My heart panged. She was scared Grayson would come to kill her, but still somehow hung up on him.
I almost laughed at the irony. Had that not been me?
Is this what you do, Grayson? Enslave women’s souls and then turn your back on them? You’re a cruel fucking bastard.
I contemplated telling her the truth. The story I had made her believe the previous time was a lot more elaborate than reality. But it didn’t matter anymore. She had already decided to talk, to risk her life to get out of this place. It had to be really bad in here.
I felt sorry for Raina. I felt guilty for having her believe I was more to Grayson than I really was. Maybe they were the real soulmates, and I had ruined her chance at happiness—at a whirlwind life with a man so perfectly suited to her.
I blew a strand of hair from my eyes and focused on an old bloodstain on the ceiling.
“He kidnapped me when they robbed a bank. Held me hostage and made me fall in love with him.” Had the location where he held me been random?
Grayson had known all about me. He knew my love for nature.
Did he pick the forest for that reason? He could have held me anywhere in the world.
But the forest was a place of magic to me.
Had he used it as another tool to woe me? Manipulate my feelings towards him?
I shook the thought off. It doesn’t matter anymore. “I had thought it was bad luck. Or fate,” I laughed bitterly. “But Grayson took me because I knew Charles Anderson. And even after he told me everything, I still helped him.” I dropped my eyes to her. “Then he left me to take the fall.”
Raina laughed, but it held no humour. She picked up the lip balm. “Stupid girl.” She applied it to her lips, then hid it inside her bra.
I wringed my fingers together in my lap. “Yeah,” I answered softly.
She leaned over the table, eyes moving to Owen. “I want to serve out my sentence in my own country. For however long he lets me live,” she whispered so softly, I almost didn’t catch it.
Owen nodded, as if he expected her request. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Owen made phone call after phone call, sometimes talking in Russian, and once in Italian. He was getting more and more agitated with each call.
I paid him no mind. I only watched Raina through the small window.
She sat as still as death, waiting. I could see it on her face—she was convinced of her coming death.
She was prepared for it. The waiting must kill her.
It had killed me in that cabin. Was that why Grayson hadn’t killed her yet?
To torture her? Or maybe he was always going to rescue her.
Maybe he was dragging it out to punish her—for admitting to the FBI that she knew him.
After three more hours, I bought two packets of crisps from the shitty vending machine in the prison’s staff room and made my way back to the interrogation room. Raina was sitting on the floor, her back against the wall.
I plopped down next to her and held out a packet of crisps to her. “Don’t try to kill me.”
She grabbed the packet and plopped a crisp into her mouth, closing her eyes, savouring the taste. “Do I get my deal?” she asked.
I shrugged, pulling a face at the taste of the crisps. It was stale. Food must be really bad here if she enjoyed these stale chips. “Don’t know yet, but Agent Becket seems to be pulling all the strings.”
She nodded, then plopped another few crisps in her mouth. “Is he a good fuck?”
I eyed her. “Grayson?”
She chuckled. “I know Grayson is a good fuck. I’m talking about Becket. You’re clearly fucking him.” She threw a hand up. “No judgement here. I reckon he’s the reason you’ve stayed alive for this long.”
I didn’t see the point in pretending otherwise. “Yeah, I reckon so too. Or maybe it’s Gemma,” I wondered out loud, letting my head lull against the wall. “Maybe she’s the reason we’re both still alive.”
Raina grinned at me. “I don’t think so. Gemma never trusted me.”
I laughed. “Gemma always had good instincts.”
“Never said she didn’t.” She winked at me.
The hum of the fluorescent light changed frequency.
“I never thought I was the one. I’m not that fucking stupid. I was just saying it to get under your skin.” Raina twisted her ponytail around her hand, inspecting the ends and grimacing.
“Maybe you are the one. You know, in the fucked-up way that Grayson loves. If he’s capable.”
She smiled, and turned to me, inspecting my face. “Maybe.” She ran her fingers through my hair, and I tried my best to keep my breathing even to not let her see how uncomfortable it made me. “I am prettier than you.”
“Maybe.” My lips lifted at their own accord.
She sagged back against the wall, snatching my packet of half-eaten crisps. “Let me know when you’re done playing cop. Two pretty faces like ours? We could rule the underworld.”
I nodded. “Give me the information to take the current king out, and you have yourself a deal.”
She snorted. “That’s impossible. He’s not… human.”
I laughed. Had I not also mused at the idea of him being a god? A devil? “I had a knife to his neck once. My bullet had torn through his skin. Have you seen the scars I’ve left on his face? I can assure you—he bleeds like you and me.”
That caught her attention. “You think you can actually get him?”
“I think we are the closest anyone has ever gotten.”
The door swung open, and Owen stepped inside, pocketing his phone. “Well, isn’t this cozy.”
Raina chuckled seductively, trailing a hand over my leg. “You could always join us, Agent Becket. It’s been so long, and I hear you’re an excellent fuck.”
I smacked her hand away and turned to Owen. “And?”
“I had to call in a shit-ton of favours, but I managed a deal. Raina, you’ll be moved to a prison in your own country, only if your information leads to the arrest of Grayson Varon and his two associates.”
Raina’s lips pursed. “So if you’re too stupid to catch him, I’m still stuck here.” She glared at Owen.
Owen shrugged. “Then give us fool-proof information.”
She groaned and jumped to her feet, irritably pacing the length of the room. There was a worried frown between her brows, and she chewed on a nail.
“Take the deal, Raina. We are your best shot at surviving Grayson. And getting out of this dump.” I stood as she stopped before me.
Before I even saw her move, she had me pinned to the wall, her hands around my neck. My pulse beat frantically against her palms. I blinked and Owen had his gun to her temple. But he did not try to get her off.
“You better get him before he gets me,” Raina hissed in my face, then loosened her grip, so I could breathe again. “A little closer, Loverboy,” she whispered to Owen, and he shifted in behind her, grabbing her in a chokehold.
Oh.
It was all a distraction, so she could tell us what she knew. And Owen was playing along. Did I miss some invisible signal?
“I overheard a conversation between Grayson and Hunter a few years back. I was passed out drunk on their sofa. They hadn’t noticed that I had woken up.
Grayson was talking about the Codex Leicester, and how his father was in the process of buying it before his death.
And that it was a bucket list heist for him.
The current owner’s vault is more protected than the Mona Lisa.
For anyone else, it is an impossible feat.
For Grayson, it is enough to give him pause. Make him think twice.”
“But if the Codex were to be taken out for whatever reason…” Owen tried hard to keep his face in a scowl.
“It would be irresistible to Grayson,” she finished Owen’s thought.
“He doesn’t know you know?” I wheezed through my narrowed windpipe. Raina had a smile spreading over her beautiful face as she watched me struggle.
“If we’re clever, he won’t see it coming. We will be the ones pulling the strings,” Owen added, the spark returning to his eyes.
I pulled back my fist and punched Raina in the face, before bringing my knee up between her legs. It was self defence against a man, but it seemed to work just as good on a woman. Raina crumbled to the floor.
“Don’t you ever put your hands on me again,” I hissed at her. She had no reason to choke that hard, except for being a crazy bitch.
“Fuck you, Bambi,” she grunted, her breath coming out in chuckles as she tried to stand.
Definitely a crazy bitch.
Owen held a hand out to me, a grin on his face. “Hope you’ll be more cooperative on our next visit, Raina,” he said without looking at her, leading me to the door.