TORTURE ME_ The Bandits MC(121)

Chapter 14



Julia



When I stepped into the room where Dimitri was being held, something felt off immediately. The large Russian was slumped over in his chair, and his breathing seemed heavier and more labored than usual. The room also seemed darker, but I chalked that up to being in well-lit rooms since the last time I saw him. I figured my eyes would adjust to the dark room eventually.



I sat down across from him in my jeans and tank top, realizing I didn’t look the most professional but not caring. We weren’t exactly in the most professional setting. Besides, I thought that a little skin might make him talk. I was starting to realize that the men around me operated with a different set of expectations than the men I normally had to work with.



I needed Dimitri to talk. I could sense that Gage’s patience was beginning to wear thin with his adversary, and I suspected it was wearing thin with me as well. I sat and waited for him to acknowledge me before getting started. I wanted to be sure he hadn’t just passed out in the chair.



“Dimitri, are you okay?” I asked him.



He didn’t lift his face, but I could see his eyes looking up at me. Something wasn’t right. Maybe he was losing his patience with this whole situation as well. He spat something on the floor. “I’m sorry, Dr. Danvers,” he started. “I don’t feel much like talking today.”



“I’m sorry to hear that, but I need you to talk. You and I are both depending on your willingness to talk right now,” I told him. I crossed my legs and sat back, trying to regain my professional composure.



“Why do you say that?” he asked me. He hacked something up and spit on the floor again. This time I heard the wet smack of whatever it was he’d expelled from his body.



I looked up at the dim light glowing above us. It didn’t offer enough illumination to see what he was spitting up on the floor across from me, but I couldn’t help feeling like it was something I wouldn’t have wanted to see anyway.



“Gage isn’t going to tolerate not getting any answers out of either of us for much longer,” I explained. “I think I’m going to be replaced, and I wouldn’t count on the next person being quite as friendly. I also worry about what he’s going to do to you if you don’t start talking.”



He laughed, hacking up more fluid and spitting. “Don’t worry about me, Dr. Danvers,” he said, sitting up and leaning back from the light.



“Seriously, Dimitri, are you okay?” I insisted. He really didn’t sound okay today. He sounded sick.



“I’m fine,” he said confidently, finding his solid, stern voice again and clearing his throat.



“Well, look, I want to ensure that you stay that way,” I told him, “so give me something to work with here.”



He sat quietly for a moment. I couldn’t even hear him breathing anymore. All I could see of him were his arms tied to the chair. The rest of him faded into the darkness beyond the light.



I started to ask if he was alright again, but I heard him shift in his chair underneath his restraints. He was still with me. He took a slow, deep breath.



“Ivan has a pretty big drug deal coming up soon,” his disembodied voice said flatly from just beyond the reach of the light hanging down just above us.



“That’s news,” I said. Encouraged by this small revelation, I leaned forward, trying to keep my voice even and contain my excitement at the information that had just spilled out in front of me. “Can you tell me when and where?”



“I don’t know anything else,” he said. “It may have already happened while I’ve been in here.”



I narrowed my eyes at him—at the darkness where he should have been—displeased with his reluctance to provide more information. “This is not much to take to Gage, Dimitri. I really need more.”



He coughed. “I don’t have anything else.”



“You know, this is probably just enough to piss him off even more. Do you really expect me to believe that Ivan’s right hand man doesn’t know the details about a big drug deal he’s got planned?” I mocked him.



He took a deep, heavy breath.



“Why is he keeping you out of the loop, Dimitri?”



“Don’t be stupid,” he said, growing irate. “I am the loop, Dr. Danvers. Do you understand? He doesn’t do anything that I don’t know about. Don’t ever think for a second that I don’t know what Ivan is doing. Who do you think arranges it?”



“Okay, what else do you know?” I asked him calmly. I had him right where I wanted him, ready to prove to me that he hadn’t been forgotten, that even in his isolation, he was still relevant to Ivan’s operations.