Total pages in book: 187
Estimated words: 177397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 887(@200wpm)___ 710(@250wpm)___ 591(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 177397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 887(@200wpm)___ 710(@250wpm)___ 591(@300wpm)
“Do you know who drugged you or what synthetic they used?” the brunette asks, her interests piqued.
Nikita shakes her head. “No. We took a sample with the hope it would give us answers, but the results aren’t back yet.”
She flips over the pages in her notepad before asking, “Do you have an approximate time you were drugged?”
“I don’t remember much from before I arrived for my shift yesterday,” Nikita answers. “I remember driving there, and I think I entered via the underground garage elevator, but I can’t be sure. It’s all blank.”
“Until what time?”
The male detective’s voice is as railroading as earlier, but it is too late for him. He lost any pleasantries he seems to think he suddenly deserves.
“I woke around two,” Nikita answers, even with her tone announcing she doesn’t believe he deserves her assistance.
The brunette jumps back into the conversation. “A.m.?”
When Nikita nods, arrogance hardens the male detective’s wrinkly features. “So the alibi your husband’s lawyer gave us an hour ago is false. He was not with you at all.”
“Th-that isn’t what I said. I said I woke at two. But he was with me the en-entire time.”
He scoffs at Nikita’s reply. “How would you know if you were passed out?”
“Because he sleeps inside her every night.” I look him up and down, doubling my wish to vomit. “And unlike the unfortunate women who have slept with you, she couldn’t mistake his presence.”
“It’s actually anytime she sleeps.” Maksim enters the frame from stage left, almost pulling my knees out from beneath me as well as he does Nikita’s. “But I’ll save the details for someone more worthy of my time.” He assists me in keeping Nikita upright before he doubles the whiteness of the detectives’ cheeks with a commanding glare. “Is there something I can assist you with, Officers?”
The brunette flashes her credentials. “Detective Lara Sonova from Trudny PD. We’re here to verify the alibi Raya Hughes gave for Mrs. Fern—” She recovers quickly. “Mrs. Ivanov earlier today.”
“Once she finalized her shift, she was here with me all night, as my lawyer has already stated.”
“Ah…” Lara flicks through her notepad. “And—”
“And if you have any further questions, they can be directed through my lawyer, as also stated earlier.” Maksim’s arrogance could give Andrik’s a run for its money. It doesn’t stop me from seeking any signs of injury on his body, however. “Is that understood?”
“Yes,” Lara gives in just as I sigh in relief.
Maksim doesn’t appear to have even been in a fight.
After soundlessly apologizing to Nikita for her partner’s actions, Lara heads for the elevator.
It takes her colleague another thirty seconds to join her.
The elevator doors have only just shut with the detectives on one side and us on the other when Nikita commences an in-depth search of Maksim’s body.
When he laughs, appreciative of her panic, I inhale a lung-filling breath of air for the first time in hours. It has me convinced that everything is okay, that none of the horrid theories I’ve been running through my head over the past several hours are true.
Only a psychopath could laugh after hurting innocent victims because of someone else’s mistake.
Andrik and Mikhail are quiet because Zakhar’s recovery is more important than my dramatics. They had nothing to do with the revenge Maksim was undertaking. They’re as innocent as the gleam in Zakhar’s eyes when he asked if I wanted to be his girlfriend.
I tune back in at the right time.
“Ano?” Nikita asks, her one word full of worry.
I sigh in relief when Maksim replies, “He was found a few hours ago. He is a little groggy and sporting a handful of new stitches, but he’s been through worse, so I don’t see his recovery taking long.”
“Is it…? Did you…?” After a stern swallow, Nikita asks more fluently, “Is it done?”
All the relief Maksim’s laughter lifted from my shoulders stacks back on when he shifts his eyes to me and narrows them before he says, “The faction working out of Myasnikov Private was more extensive than anyone realized. They weren’t just selling the organs of legitimate donors. They were encouraging harvests.”
Oh shit.
When I recall the weirdness of the invoices Boris tidied up in a hurry, I make sure Maksim’s focus is on the right people. “With food?” When Maksim nods, I shift my focus to Nikita, praying like hell she will help me shift Maksim’s daggers to the right culprits. “That’s why you kept bringing up bananas.” Hating that I’m being a coward, I return my eyes to Maksim. “Her memories are still foggy, but she recalled seeing a crate of bananas being carried out of the hospital.”
A rush of nausea hits me when Maksim discloses, “They were poisoning members of the community through food banks, then plucking a handful of unsuspecting victims from the pile to succumb to the latest gastroenteritis outbreak ravishing the city. Their families had no clue.”