Chapter 100 All the Answers
❦ Rosalind ❦
I held my breath as rage rolled off him. So heavy it raised goosebumps on my skin.
Giannis was seething, so angry I swore I could see the air ripple red around him.
Then he lazily drew the gun from his waist.
“No…wait!” I screamed.
He didn’t wait.
The first shot cracked against concrete near my feet, spraying dust into my eyes.
I jolted backward on instinct, scrambling away as two more bullets split the air one after the other, my heart hammering against my ribs.
Then silence.
I patted myself down.
No pain. No blood. Just the aftershock of adrenaline choking my lungs.
When I dared to look, the gun was gone. Giannis crouched in front of me, studying my face with a calmness befitting someone who did not just shoot at me.
“For someone supposedly planning to one-up Viktor,” he drawled, sighing like I was a disappointment, “you sure defend him a lot.” His smile slanted, knowing. “Or… are you falling in love with him? Not smart, querida. Marrying your enemy to hit him from the inside, nine times out of ten, you drown in it.”
His words sliced straight through me, kicking up my heartbeat. He could never know how close he was to the truth.
If he even suspected loyalty to Viktor, I was already dead.
I forced myself to meet his eyes, swallowing the lump in my throat.
“I’m just exhausted,” I confessed, letting the bitterness bleed into my voice. “This is the third time I’ve been dragged off by people trying to get to Viktor. I’m tired of being in the middle of it.”
Something flickered across his face. Satisfaction.
“Ah. That explains everything.”
He studied me for a beat, his head tilted like a curious, harmless puppy. His expression softened, but not enough to hide the violence underneath.
“It must have been difficult. Having men like that circling you. My condolences for your father, by the way. Though I doubt you cared much for him.”
My heart lurched. “Why?” I asked, carefully, though my voice betrayed me with its tremor.
“Why?” He repeated slowly, savoring it. His gaze sharpened like a hawk. “For what he did, of course.”
Confusion snagged me.
My father? He’d been ruthless, yes, but Giannis Sanchez, this man, judging him? He had slaughtered a woman in cold blood just to send a message. What could my father have possibly done to warrant this kind of scorn from him?
The answer was almost too obvious. Giannis knew something.
The secret I’d been chasing, the truth about my father that everyone else knew but me.
I licked my lips, careful. “Yes,” I whispered, dropping my gaze like I carried the same shame. “A terrible affair.”
Please, I begged silently. Keep talking.
But Giannis’s smile only widened. He leaned closer, his voice hungry. “You don’t know, do you?”
The floor seemed to tilt beneath me. My stomach sank.
He wasn’t going to hand me the truth. Unless I earned it.
I swallowed hard. Giannis’s eyes dragged over me mockingly, and then he laughed like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “Clueless,” he said. “Like a day-old lamb.”
Heat crawled up my neck, shame and fury tangling together, but I didn’t move. I couldn’t. My body felt strung tight, like if I made one wrong twitch he’d put a bullet between my eyes.
“Would you like to know?” His voice was smooth and coaxing, and he dangled the words between us like bait.
My shoulders sagged. I already knew what was coming, but still I heard myself whisper, “Yes.”
“Then you’ll do something for me first.”
My stomach dropped. Of course. Always a price.
“What?”
He slipped a flash drive from his pocket and casually twirled it between his fingers.
“Simple,” he said. “You’ll tell Viktor about me.”
I blinked. “Huh?”
“Viktor’s stumbling in the dark,” Giannis went on, grinning. “I came here for battle, not hide-and-seek.”
I hesitated. “Okay.”
That sounded too easy.
“Not just that.” He continued, proving me right. “You’ll attach this flash drive to Viktor’s laptop. Slip it in, and your father’s crime will appear neatly typed out, while the virus eats through Viktor’s life and his precious connections.”
My heart lurched. My father. His crime. I’d chased whispers for so long that the thought of it being handed to me now felt like a trap, because of course it was.
“And how am I supposed to trust you?” My voice cracked despite how hard I tried to harden it.
“You don’t.” His grin widened like he’d been waiting for me to ask. “You don’t have a choice. Viktor keeps you tethered with this little morsel, doesn’t he? He keeps the truth just out of reach so you’ll dance for him. You’ll do anything to know. That’s what makes you mine.”
His words sank like poison, and I hated how true they were.
I forced my hand out, and the flash drive landed heavily in my palm.
It was sleek, metallic. And from what he’d said, it wasn’t a normal flash drive, but loaded with malware that would download updates and rewrite data in real time.
I licked my lips at the possibility of finally getting all the answers.
I lifted my eyes to him. “And you’ll really let me go?”
Giannis leaned back, waving as if this were a friendly chat. “Of course. I’m nothing if not a gentleman.”
The image of the blonde woman in the club rose in my head. Her lifeless eyes and the sigil carved into her skin. I nearly mentioned it, but I swallowed the words back.
Instead, I froze as Giannis bent close, his mouth grazing my ear.
“If you cross me,” he whispered, “I’ll stake you through the heart. Right after Viktor.” My heart stuttered at his promise. “Three days. Plug it in, or I’ll come for you.”
A shiver slid down my spine.
He patted my head like I was an obedient dog, then rose to his full height. “You’ll find your way,” he said, turning his back on me, the conversation over.
His men, still as statues until then, broke formation and followed him out. The metal doors swung, screeching, then slammed shut.
Engines revved as cars peeled away, and soon even that faded into silence.
I stayed where I was, my knees locked.
Then I shut my eyes, trying to inhale deep like I’d seen in a yoga video.
In, out, in…
I cracked.
The air stuck in my chest, and the sobs ripped free.
I collapsed onto the cold concrete floor, tears burning hot trails down my face, the flash drive still clutched in my hand like a barbed key.