I reach forward and take the dull knife out of the man's hand. The man cried out, pathetic. "The artwork you stole. Where is it?"
"I already told you, it was a side job! I met the guys on some random corner and handed it off. I'm telling the truth!" A bitter laugh left my lips. I crouch down at eye level still keeping my distance so he can't headbutt me.
"You're not. I know this because you have 4 tells when you lie. I figured them out when you lied about your name, Devin." I can't help but smirk when the man's eyes widen realizing I knew exactly who he was. Lev does his research well.
"H-how?" He pulls against his restraints. What makes him think he can escape now.
"If you need some incentive, I can bring in your daughter Sophie. She'll be getting out of school in-" I check my watch, "in about 20 minutes. I'm sure we can busy ourselves until then."
"Leave Her out of this!" His voice was hoarse, and I could tell I've got him. Tears start to appear on his face. Weak. He couldn't even keep it together. I didn't even send anyone to watch his daughter even though I know her whereabouts.
"Well then, speak."
"It was a part of town I'd never been before. The docks. There was a small shop off the warehouse, and I put them in there. That was my directions no one was there."
"I believe you." I could see the tension in him relax. "Except the fact that there was someone there wasn't there. I thought we already talked about how you are a bad liar. Well, liars need to be punished." I take a deep breath and start into him. After some time, I knocked him unconscious. I cleaned up and left the room.
"Did you really have to beat him this bad?" Rurik is sitting just outside the door. "You've made such a mess. Well at least the only wound still bleeding is his hand." He stood and pushed past me. "By the way, it's almost your turn to watch Kenna. Try to convince him to let you take her out of that room. I'm afraid she'd going to get sick staying in there. Good luck because Alek's in a mood again." He turns and leaves to clean up my mess and keep the captive alive.
Alek's been in a mood for a while now. We were switching every two hours to watch her but now we take whole days. I don't know what she did to make Alek so pissed off he doesn't want to see her. On his days he just sits in the window seat on his phone either texting or making calls to us in Russian. Thankfully Kenna's father kept her far enough removed from this life that she never learned Russian. He directed us not to talk to her and the way he said it we all knew it was serious. I knock on her door and Alek opens it.
I clear my throat. "Hey boss can I talk to you outside?" He hesitantly steps into the hallway and closes the door. "Doc says she needs to get out of the room. He's afraid she'll get sick. I think the lack of conversation isn't helping either. She hasn't spoken in days and Rik's starting to get worried." He looks at me for a long time before saying something.
"Fine. You can take her out of the room. She stays in the house. You can talk with her but no flirting and keep the physical contact to a minimum." I can't help but smile.
"Great. We'll go swimming in the pool then." I turn to enter the room and I feel a hand on my shoulder. He clears his throat. I turn and look at him fully prepared to get my ass chewed. Instead, he looked conflicted, and I was thoroughly confused.
"What time?"
"Excuse me?"
"What time are you going swimming?" What. The. Fuck. I stare at him in astonishment. Did he just ask me when I was going to take her swimming? Is he going to join us?
"Well, it's 11:00 now, probably around 12:30?" He nods and takes his hand off my shoulder.
"I might join you guys. I think the hot tub sounds nice and I've been thinking about going there." I try my hardest to hide my smile. I can't believe this.
"Yeah of course. You should invite Lev and Rik too. They might enjoy the break from the stress too." Lev is going to die in laughter when he asks him to join us. He nods and walks away. I turn and open the door. "Hello princess!" She turns and looks at me. She's sitting on the edge of her bed eating her lunch. "Finish your lunch. We get to have an adventure today."
"You can talk to me now?" Her face showed visible relief. I smiled in response.
"Yup! We also get to do something fun today courtesy of the big bad man who just left the room. Apparently, he decided to have fun for the first time in years. Speaking of that, I need to send a text to Ana." I grab my phone and Kenna continues to eat though for the first time in a while, she is smiling. I missed that. I send a quick text to Ana and bring my attention back the fiery red head in the room. We had a bit of time so while Kenna read a book by the window, I sent texts to Rurik and Lev to inquire if they were joining us and they were already planning on it since Alek asked them first. I'm a bit surprised Alek actually invited them.
"What are we going to be doing today? What's this adventure you are talking about?" I can see the curiosity in her face.
"Well, Princess, I can't tell you that because it would ruin the surprise." She glared at me in response. "I can tell you that we will be getting out of this room, we will be staying in the house, and it should be fun."
"Should be? That doesn't sound that encouraging." I rolled my eyes and grabbed her wrist. She should be happy we can all talk to her again. I know we have all been on edge because of it.
"Come on. I know you want to get out of this room." I pause when I get to the door handle. She might try to run. Maybe I should carry her like Lev did. No. I don't. want to do that down the steps. I turn to her and give her an intimidating look. I can tell it worked because she shrank back. "Listen Kenna, I am going to let you walk and I won't carry you but if you try to run, you will be dead before you reach the door. And if we capture you instead of killing you, we will treat you no better than the actual criminals that stay in the interrogation rooms." Her eyes widened and she nodded.
"I'll be on my best behavior." I nod and we head down the twisting hallways to the pool. As we neared the entrance, I saw Ana waiting outside with her son Amos. I walk up and pull her into a hug.
"Thank you, Ana. You do so much for us." I step away. Her belly has gotten bigger and I notice she keeps resting her hand on it. Weird.
"You should be thankful! I have to put everything in my life on hold for you guys. I had to go digging for one that would fit her. I have a child to raise but I really have five children to raise. The son I gave birth to, You, Alek, Rurik, and Le-"
"You're Pregnant again." I stare at her. I thought out loud.
"How did you know?" She is. I wrap her in an even bigger hug. "Hey! Be careful with me! I'm a pregnant woman!"
"I'm sorry you have to deal with all our stuff. I promise we will quit asking things of you. Please take care, Ana. I'll talk to Alek and we will find someone else to run all of our errands. I can't believe it, Ana." I gave her a huge smile and she reciprocated.
"Okay, get off of me idiot. I have what you need for your adventure." She picked up a plastic bag from the floor and handed it to Kenna who is watching the whole situation very confused. She takes the bag and makes no attempt to look inside. "This is one I never wore. The tags are still on it."
"Thank you." Kenna retorted politely. She seems really uncomfortable. Ana takes Amos's hand and starts walking back down the hallway.
"Okay, you are going to go in that door and put that on." I point at the plastic bag and look at her. "Keep walking through that room and go through the door on the other side. I'll meet you there." She just looks at me and doesn't go to move. I direct her shoulders and push her towards the door. Kenna goes through the door and I can't help but think about how confused she is right now. She has no idea what we are doing.
