“Just let me talk to her, khorosho?” answers Leon.
“I don’t want no blood on my seats, eh? You got that?” warns the cop.
“We’ll get it detailed for you,” sneers Lukas sarcastically.
“Hey man, I’m serious. Chief is on my tail about my unaccounted hours and whatnot. I don’t want him gettin’ suspicious on me, alright?” complains the officer, holding up his hands.
“Shut up,” Leon says, “and open up that door.”
“Sure thing, boss.”
“No,” I murmur softly as the officer pops the door open and Leon reaches inside to grab at me. I slide as far away from him as possible, shaking my head. “No!”
“Come here,” Leon growls, grabbing me by the wrists and dragging me out into the rain.
My lungs clinging to that last wisp of oxygen.
“No! Don’t hurt me, please!” I cry out, flailing at him.
There’s laughter from the biker guys, but Leon doesn’t even flinch, pinning me against the slick side of the police car with effortless ease. He leans in close to my face and even in my stark terror I am taken aback by how handsome he is. His eyes are a jade-green, a color surely too vivid to be natural, and there’s dark stubble shadowing his strong jaw. His lips are barely parted, his breaths slow and measured, as though he’s done this a thousand times. Like this is nothing to him. Like my life is nothing to him.
Even hunched over to get in my face, he towers over me, but I refuse to shrink away — there’s nowhere to run now anyway. I am surrounded. There’s no way out.
“Who the hell are you?” he asks, his voice so low and deep it sends a thrum through my chest. “Who sent you?”
“Nobody.”
“What is your name?”
I close my lips tightly, giving him the fiercest glare I can muster. If I’m going to die in this shitty parking lot, then I am damn sure not going to die cowering like a wimp. It’s the least I can do. Be brave, like dad would have wanted. Not give in to the people who very well might have killed him.
Anger flashes in his green eyes and he shakes my shoulders, pressing me harder against the car. “Why were you in that warehouse? What did you see?”
“Why were you in that warehouse?” I snap, narrowing my eyes.
There’s some unrest among the bikers as they look around at each other, surprised at my brazenness. I gulp.
“None of your damn business,” Leon snarls.
“Right back at ya,” I reply, surprising even myself. Leon inhales slowly, clearly fighting to hold in his fury at me. One of his hands releases me to swipe back through his dark hair, as he shuts his eyes momentarily. He’s losing patience, I can tell. I don’t know exactly what that means for me, but it can’t be anything good. That’s for sure.
“Look,” he growls, his voice so low I doubt anyone else can hear him but me, “I don’t want to hurt you. But I ask the questions here. Not you.”
Well, at least he says he doesn’t want to hurt me — unlike Lukas behind him, who is rubbing his knuckles and giving me the coldest glare on planet earth. Still, with Leon’s hands pinning me like this, his words aren’t particularly comforting.
After a long, tense silence, I finally break a little.
“I saw you and that guy behind you,” I sigh, gesturing toward Lukas. “You had some other man chained up on the floor in the warehouse. I couldn’t really hear what you were saying, though,” I lie. It’s only half a lie. After all, I did hear some of what they said, but I can’t really put it into context at the moment, so it’s not especially helpful intel.
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Leon says, easing up ever so slightly.
“But I’m not going to tell you why I was there,” I add, tilting my face upward defiantly.
“Oh, come on! Just shake the information out of her! We don’t have all day!” shouts Lukas, waving his arms angrily. He’s definitely the hothead of the crew, that much I can tell.
“Let the man work,” drawls the cop, surveying his fingernails as though this is the most routine of activities in the world. And who knows — maybe this is everyday fare for him.
“You do realize you’re completely surrounded here, right?” Leon prods, raising an eyebrow at my obstinate refusal. “You know you’re in the very definition of real and present danger, don’t you?”
I nod, still keeping my lips shut tight.
A flicker of something akin to a smile crosses Leon’s face, to my surprise. Surely I imagined that. There’s no way he’s finding any of this amusing.
“Damn, you’re one stubborn devushka, aren’t you?” he murmurs, so softly I barely hear him say it. And there it is: an unmistakable little half-smile. I don’t know if it’s a good sign, though. I don’t know if it means he’s going to let me go or if he’s just really excited about the prospect of torturing me for information.