Hard Bastard(58)

Chapter 25





Sadie





The hood they shoved over my head was scratchy and hot as hell as I stumbled along behind Alex. He held me by the arm, steering me through a building, but I had no clue where I was. As soon as I got into the car, he shoved the hood over my face and ordered me not to move.

We went through a series of doors and finally I was pushed down into a chair.

“Don’t move,” Alex ordered, his voice echoing slightly. “He’ll be with you shortly.”

I heard a door shut and my heart was beating fast. I didn’t know who Alex meant, and I really didn’t want to know. I was actually a little surprised that I was still alive at all, to be totally honest. I couldn’t stop thinking about Gage and what he was probably going through.

This was all my fault. I dragged him into this because I was stupid enough to get involved with the mob again, and now we were both dead. That was what really hurt me the most: I got Gage killed, and all for nothing.

I sat in the chair, unmoving. I couldn’t hear a thing except for the dripping of water nearby.

I wasn’t tied up at all, and I could get up whenever I wanted to, but I didn’t move a muscle. I knew that if I wanted to get through this, I had to play along. They clearly didn’t see me as a threat, otherwise I would be tied up or something. Instead, I sat there with the hood over my face, sweating slightly, terrified and filled with sadness.

After ten minutes, I heard the door open and shut again. I heard another chair scraping across the floor as someone dragged it over toward me. The person stopped and sat down across from me.

“Take off the hood,” he said.

I took it off. The man sitting in front of me was older with intense eyes and a weary smile.

“Do you know who I am?”

“I think you’re Vadik,” I said.

He nodded. “That’s right.”

“You’re the leader of the Petrovs. I’ve seen your pictures.”

“I’m sure you have.” He smiled at me. “You’ve really done your homework.”

“What do you want from me?”

“You know what I want.”

“You already have everything.”

“Do we now?” He leaned back in his chair, still smiling that cold, detached grin. “I’m not so sure that we do.”

“You have the papers from my office and my apartment. Now you have my laptop and the files I brought with me. That’s everything.”

“Sure,” he conceded. “We have the paperwork, that’s true.” He leaned forward, getting closer to me. “But we don’t have what’s up here.”

Fear lanced through me as he reached out and tapped my forehead. Vicious laughter tore from his throat as he sat back and crossed his arms.

“I can’t forget,” I said to him. “I can try.”

“I don’t need you to forget.”

“What do you want from me?” I asked again getting desperate.

“I want you to tell me what you know.”

I paused, staring at him. I didn’t know what to do or say, but clearly he was looking for something from me. Instead of trying to come up with some story, I decided just to tell the truth.

“I know you’ve been bribing local officials for years,” I started out. “I can’t prove it, but I have some pretty incriminating news reports. You’ve been silencing reporters too, by the way. Killing them when they get too close.”

As I spoke, his smile remained plastered to his face. It was almost as if he didn’t care what I said at all. He just wanted to hear me talk, and so I talked.

I told him everything I knew and everything I suspected. I went into as much detail as I possibly could off the top of my head, which was actually surprisingly considerable. I went on and on, following any path my mind took me down, and Vadik just sat there patiently listening.

Finally, I ran out of things to say. I stopped talking, took a deep breath, and leaned back in my chair.

“That’s it?” he asked.

I nodded. “That’s everything.”

He laughed. “You sure can babble.”

“I wanted to be thorough.”

“You dumb girl. Do you really think you’re going to get out of this?”

My breath caught in my chest. “What?”

“Your boyfriend is already dead. I had Boris drive him out to the edge of town, put a bullet in his brain, and bury him in a shallow grave. He’ll rot there and nobody will give a fuck, because Gage was a piece of shit scumbag.”

I clenched my jaw but didn’t say a word. The smile never left his face, but I knew what he was trying to do.

He was trying to bait me. I didn’t know why, but he wanted to get me angry, rile me up, push my buttons. Maybe this was just some kind of sick game for him and he enjoyed messing with people. I couldn’t get a read on him because of that creepy, cold smile and the way he held himself so aloof and detached.