KIRA #2
I was ready for this question. I lay in bed all night thinking of how to really sell this and the obvious conclusion was a secret operation the Kuzins knew nothing about.
"I was placed there," I say. "By my uncle. As a source of information."
"A mole?"
"If you want to call it that."
He narrows his eyes at me, and I try to sit as still as possible.
Liars fidget. They touch things and adjust things.
They also sweat and their eyes flick around, so I pick up the wine glass calmly and lift an eyebrow.
"This is good..." I mumble before sipping more of the awful wine.
I prefer a dessert wine. This is dry and hard to choke down.
Timur leans forward and folds his hands on the table. "Your uncle is Sergei Belova?" Both eyebrows rise on his face in skepticism, and I glower at him.
"What the fuck do you think?" Setting my glass down, I feign innocence and offense. "Why else would I be there? Look... I'm just wanting to do my job. If he wanted you Kuzins to know about it, don't you think he'd tell you? Just because we're allies doesn’t mean you control what we do."
I feel a bead of sweat roll down my spine, but I've committed to this and there's no backing out now.
Put that way, he seems to sit back and be more thoughtful than aggressive.
Now I've got him in defensive posturing, like he's thinking they fucked up really badly.
To capture and control an ally's daughter could start a war.
He'll have to be delicate with how he plays this out.
That thought never occurred to me until now, but it's perfect.
"You are correct," he says bluntly, and he picks up his wine glass and downs it.
"I owe you an apology," he says after a while.
His voice is softer, though I don't think he's doing it on purpose.
I think he really believes he fucked up.
"What happened to you should never have happened.
My people hit that location to deal with a threat against our family, and you were caught in the middle of it. "
I can't believe it worked.
This idiot actually believes I'm a woman named Kira Belova, and that whole name was entirely made up.
Yeah, there's a Nikolai in that family, but I don’t know his last name at all.
I know he married in and Sergei's sister died.
That's it, but the cover story has seemed to dissolve any animosity he has toward me.
"So, I can go home now?" I start to rise, thinking maybe he will let me walk right out the door and go home, but he runs a hand down over his face and sighs hard.
"No, I'm sorry..." I freeze at his words and turn to face him.
"Why not?" Of course. I'm stupid. He's not gonna let me walk back into Sergei Belova's home and tell him the Kuzins held me captive or ruined an undercover mission.
From what I know of that alliance, it was forced, anyway.
Sergei isn't too pleased with his daughter over that mess and something like this would only make him hate the Kuzin name more.
"You've got to understand that I have to check your story out.
" He gestures at the chair again, but I scowl at him.
Then he continues. "And we have to come to some sort of understanding.
What happened in that office wasn't meant to harm one of our own.
You're lucky you hid when you did, or you'd be dead now too and we'd have hell to pay. "
I sit, feeling my heart start racing. I want to go home. "Then tell my uncle you're sorry. You couldn't have known about his operation. You saved me and—"
"It doesn't work that way." Timur picks up the wine bottle and refills his glass, then tops mine off and nods at it.
"Drink," he orders, and I'm too pissed off to care if I get drunk now.
So I pick it up and down the contents in a few swallows as he goes on.
"You and I have to agree on the story we tell him, and I need to make sure I can trust that you'll be sincere...
And we have to tip toe. That alliance is new, and upsetting it would cause problems we don't want. "
My blood boils as I set the glass down, but he's right. A good ally would understand all of this, and I have to play along or he will think I'm lying. Which is exactly what I'm doing. But it doesn’t mean I can't act annoyed.
"So we play your game a little longer, and then I can go update my uncle about the mess inside the Mirov organization?" I lift my eyebrows. "Then I can go home?" I don't want to hate him, but I'm starting to.
"Think of this as a vacation. I'll get you anything you want while I check out your story, and when we figure out how to return you to your family without raising any horrible issues, I’ll do it immediately." Timur looks genuinely remorseful as he says, "Deal?"
This isn't what I really wanted, but it buys me time. Just one week is all I really need, and Victor will come for me.
"Fine, but can we do away with the lock on the bedroom? I'd like to see more than four walls..." I'm not holding my breath that he'll ease up, but I have to try.
"I'll think about it."
Timur returns to his wine and meal and I force myself to finish eating like a good little girl. Victor had better come fast because I don't know how long I can put up with this act.
Though, the man across from me does seem to be a good businessman, and he's actually really good-looking now that I'm getting a good look at him. Under different circumstances, I might find him to be the sort of man I would consider dating—a little old, but not out of the question.
So for now, I'll bide my time and enjoy the eye candy.
But if this stretches on too long, I may crack.