by Leah Wilde
He waved a hand dismissively between us. “Don’t worry. I was just teasing.”
“You didn’t sound like you were teasing.”
“I know. My voice doesn’t carry humor well,” he said with a dry laugh.
Likely excuse, I thought. I couldn’t believe I had tried to convince myself to trust this man. Unfortunately, it seemed like I didn’t have much choice in my current position but to try to trust him.
“Well, I was going to ask if there was a way I could interrogate Dimitri somewhere besides that little room down there, somewhere a little more conducive to talking. But I guess that’s out of the question,” I said.
“I’m afraid he has to stay down there,” Gage said. “And it’s important that he stays tied up as well. Don’t get any ideas when you go back down there to talk to him again. I don’t want things to get ugly.”
“It’s a bit late for that,” I commented under my breath.
“Yes, it would seem so, wouldn’t it?”
“I mean, you’ve got a guy tied to a metal chair in what is essentially a concrete bunker underneath your motorcycle club’s headquarters. Things are already pretty messy, aren’t they?” I asked him.
“Things are always messy around here, Julia, if that’s your definition of messy,” he countered.
“I guess so. Still, I’d like to think there’s got to be a better way to get information out of Dimitri. He doesn’t seem too interested in talking. Maybe if there was a way I could approach him in a less confrontational manner, you know?” I directed the conversation back to the matter at hand. I couldn’t just solely focus my energy on the fact that I was working for a criminal organization, essentially aiding them in the kidnapping of another criminal.
“It’s really for the best to have him down there,” Gage said flatly. “We can’t really do anything differently with him. I hope you understand after what I’ve told you just now.”
I really wasn’t sure if I wanted to go back down there to talk to him again after finding out that he’d been sent to kill Gage by the rival boss. “When do you want me to go back down there?” I asked him.
“Whenever you’re ready,” Gage answered. “The sooner you can get some information out of him, the sooner all of this will be over, just like you said.”
I really didn’t feel safe going back down there by myself, so I mustered up the courage to ask him, “Will you go down there with me?”
“Of course I will, Julia,” he said. “I’m not going to go back in the room with you, just because I agree that you’ll probably get more out of him if you’re on your own, but I’ll be down there by the door in case anything goes wrong. While you’re here you’re my responsibility,” he said. “I can’t let anything happen to you.”
I found his sense of responsibility for my well-being odd and almost out of place. He presented this rough, bad boy exterior to the world, but underneath, he seemed to be a rather upstanding gentleman. I was having trouble reconciling the two parts of him I was seeing.
I thanked him for his kindness and told him I was ready to go back downstairs.
As we got up from the table, he put a hand on my shoulder. “Remember when you go down there, I need to know where I can find Ivan and what his next move is. See if you can get a timeline of what he’s up to or what he has planned. Also, see if you can get specific locations as to where he is and where he might be,” he coached me.
“I got it,” I said. “Don’t worry. I think I can remember those questions. Now, let’s go before I lose my nerve.”
“What do you mean?” he asked as we started making our way back to the stairs.
“You’re sticking me in a room alone with the man who just recently tried to kill you,” I reminded him.
“Changes your perception of him a little, doesn’t it?”
“Just a little,” I agreed.
“Don’t worry, Julia.” In a change of tone, Gage had become very concerned about me, repeating that I would be alright and that he would be watching out for me.
Normally, I would have been quick to tell someone that I could take care of myself, but my confidence had been shaken by my conversation with Gage. I welcomed his offer to protect me and watch over me while I talked to the assassin that had been sent to murder him.
Gage kept going back and forth between someone I knew better than to trust and someone I didn’t have a choice but to trust. I looked around the room at all of the other bikers in their vests with their Kings of Hell logos and patches on. I knew that if anything went wrong, and Gage simply said the word, each of those men would be at his side to protect me.
Still, if he was supposed to be the good guy, just how bad was Dimitri supposed to be? I didn’t want to find out, but as I stood in front of the door to the interrogation room again, watching as Gage opened it, I knew I would probably find out sooner rather than later.
I shot Gage a look as I walked into the room, letting him shut the door behind me. He didn’t lock it, and I was sure Dimitri heard that as well.
Chapter 7
As the massive steel door closed, I found myself alone in the small concrete room with Dimitri, the Russian muscle behind the rival operation opposing the Kings of Hell. Just by standing in the room I realized I was taking sides in whatever the conflict was between Ivan and Gage. My allegiance had already been determined for me.
And to make matters worse, the man sitting in the chair before me was a killer. Sure, he was worn out from sitting in that chair for an undisclosed amount of time, but his presence was threatening now that I knew who and what he was. I also knew that I had something invested in finding out what I could from him.
As much as I wanted to resent Gage for coming into my life and putting me in this position, I couldn’t deny my attraction to him. I also couldn’t deny the rush I got from realizing I was involved in some clandestine underground criminal activity. I wanted to deny how I felt. I wanted to be put-off, offended, all of that, but I wasn’t. It was thrilling to find myself here, skirting danger even as I approached the chair across from Dimitri. It was even more thrilling when I reflected on how delicious the man who got me into this was.
I sat down at the wooden table. Dimitri lifted his head, and seeing that it was me, he sat up straight in his chair.
“Help me,” he wheezed in Russian. We only talked in Russian.
“I’m trying,” I assured him, “but you’re going to have to give me some kind of information to take back to Gage if you want my help.”
“Fuck him,” he told me in his exhausted voice. “He’s going to kill me as soon as I give him any information. You have to know this.”
I looked Dimitri over. Other than where the ropes seemed to be rubbing him raw and a fresh cut on the middle finger of his right hand, he didn’t look like anyone had roughed him up. He looked tired, and his features were beginning to look a little emaciated, as if he’d been down in the basement for several days with minimal nourishment.
That wouldn’t have surprised me, I decided. It seemed very likely that Gage was treating him as a prisoner of war. A weakened killer was much better than a killer who was still on top of his game, I figured, making the situation with Dimitri a little easier to handle.
“Don’t you think he would have already killed you?” I asked him.
“No. He wants to torture me until I talk.”
“Well, as long as you don’t talk, we’re both prisoners here, Dimitri, so I need you to talk. I need to return to work and my life at home,” I told him, trying to appeal to his emotions.
He let his head fall forward again and laughed. “You’re never going to be free,” he said. “He’s not going to let you go.”
“What makes you say that, Dimitri?” I crossed my legs and shifted my weight in the chair.
“He doesn’t let anyone go. I’ve been watching Gage for years now. No one leaves him. Once you’re in, you’re in for life,” he croaked.
“I don’t know about that,” I told him. I wanted to
believe Gage when he said he would let me go after all of this. Knowing the nature of his relationship with the Russian, I didn’t have high hopes for Dimitri, but I had to try to ignore that to convince him to talk.
“You’ll learn,” he said, leaning his head back and closing his eyes.
“Gage told me about who you are,” I mentioned, trying to provoke him to talk more.
“What did he tell you?” He tilted his head back down to face me, opening his blue eyes and giving me a chilling look.
“He told me you tried to kill him.”
A slow, crooked smile spread across Dimitri’s face. “I did. That rat bastard. He undercut my boss on a trade, and it cost us a customer. So I came around to pay him a visit. I camped out across the street, but when Gage and his biker thugs left the clubhouse, two of his men broke down the door where I was and jumped me. It was two on one, and it was a surprise attack. He knows he can’t take me one-on-one.”
“Says the guy who was camped out in a room across the street with a sniper rifle pointed as supposedly unsuspecting bikers who were leaving their clubhouse to go for a ride,” I added for him, helping him create some perspective.
“Hell, it didn’t even have to be with a sniper rifle,” he added. “He knows he can’t take me in hand-to-hand combat.”
“Uh-huh. That’s why you had to distance yourself with a rifle like that. But what if I told you he had you defeated the moment you showed up to ambush the ride?”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“I mean he knew you were going to do it, so he staged the ride to draw you out and set you up.”
“There’s no way he can be that smart,” Dimitri argued.
“Seems to me you two underestimate each other a lot. If he was able to find out that you were planning on taking him down, don’t you think he’s capable of finding out where Ivan is without you?” I asked him.
“I’d like to see that,” he replied with a laugh.
“He’s got people on it right now,” I lied. “And if they find him without your help, you don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting out of here alive. They won’t even beat you. He told me they’ll just come down here and shoot you. Then, they’ll remove your body, and who knows what will happen to you then?”
“Bullshit. How do you know?” He was growing agitated, pulling on his straps and wiggling in the chair trying to work himself loose.
“He told me, just a little while ago, when he told me why you were here,” I told him, keeping my tone even, trying to sound like it didn’t matter to me one way or the other what happened to him.
“You’ve got to help me get out of here,” Dimitri said anew, no longer worn out and tired, like he’d seemed when I came in at first. Now he seemed wide awake, full of energy. He seemed alive again. It was pretty amazing how that worked, I thought.
“I’ve already told you,” I reiterated, “I’ll help you when you help me.”
He sighed and stopped fighting. “I’m not telling you shit,” he barked. “Now, either help me or fuck off so I can figure out how I’m going to do this.”
“You know, it’s probably not wise to tell me you’re planning on escaping,” I suggested to him.
He froze and leveled his eyes on me.
“That’s right. I’m sort of in with the guy who’s holding you down here. If you tell me you’re trying to escape, I’m somewhat obligated to let him know.”
“Come on,” he pleaded. “You can’t possibly have any issue with me. You don’t even know me.”
“I know that my loyalty has been bought,” I told him. “I don’t care who or what you are, but I’ve been paid to report back to Gage anything that you tell me. And he’ll know that you’re trying to figure out an escape in here, and that you’re making a pretty convincing show of it.”
“What would it take to get you not to rat me out?” he asked.
“Dimitri,” I said. “You already know what I need. I need you to tell me what your boss is planning next. I need to know where he’s going to be, when he’s going to be there, and who’s going to be there with him.”
“You expect me to just hand him over like that?”
“I do,” I admitted. “Because I already know what’s going to happen to you if you don’t. Now, if you do hand him over, you’ll be fine.”
He laughed. “You’re just the translator. You’re not in a position to make promises like that. I hope you understand.”
“Are you sure that’s all I am?” I cocked an eyebrow, and he sat back, silent and still, finally. “Now, are you going to listen to me?”
He nodded. I had no idea what was going through his mind at that moment, but I knew I very well could have just screwed myself by making my role in all of this sound bigger and more important that it was.
“You give me the information I need, and I’ll make sure you walk out of here with me,” I lied to him. Deep down, I knew he was right. I knew that once we got the information we needed out of him, Gage’s desire to exact revenge would take over, and there wouldn’t be anything that anyone else would be able to do to stop him.
“You don’t have that kind of power here,” he argued. “I’m not going to talk to you unless you agree to help me get out of here yourself.”
I knew damn well what would happen if I did that. I shook my head. “I can’t do that. Only one person can let you go.”
He nodded. “I know. And he’s not going to, no matter what I say or don’t say. In fact, the longer I keep quiet, the more time I buy. I think I’ve mentioned this before. The sooner I talk, the sooner he’s done with me. Once he’s finished with me, he’ll have one of the guys come down and kill me.”
He was so convinced that I began to wonder, myself, if he was right. He had certainly known Gage longer than I had. Was it possible that even though they were rivals, he really did know the man better than I did?
The Gage I was beginning to get to know seemed to live by a moral code of sorts. Certainly helping him out would have meant something to him. The Gage I knew was kind and trustworthy underneath his rough exterior. Surely he would’ve shown Dimitri mercy for helping him find Ivan and put an end to all of this.
Then again, what did I know? I’d just met the man. I hadn’t seen how he treated rivals other than what he was doing to Dimitri, and his treatment of the Russian seemed pretty mild compared to what it could have been. I just didn’t know what to expect from him, to be honest with myself.
“You’re thinking about it, aren’t you?” the Russian asked me.
I just stared at him. I was thinking about what I knew would happen no matter what, and I had no answers to the question of whether or not he’d let Dimitri go free if he offered up Ivan. Well, I was starting to come to a conclusion that I didn’t like, that it didn’t matter what Dimitri did, that he was right and he would end up dead either way.
“You know I’m right, don’t you?” he said, calmly. “I can see it in your eyes. You’re figuring it out.”
“Just shut up,” I snapped. “Shut the hell up. You just keep running your mouth, and you’re not helping your case any. So just shut up.” I got up, disappointed that I’d allowed him to shake my resolve like that, and I walked to the door without saying another word.
Dimitri sat quietly behind me. I figured he’d achieved his goal of disrupting me, so he had nothing left to say at the moment. He’d certainly given me something to think about, though.
I pushed open the steel door. It wasn’t locked, but Gage stood outside waiting on me.
“Did you get anything good?”
I shook my head and sighed. “No.”
He closed and locked the door behind me. “Nothing?”
“He asked me to help him escape and said that he’s going to try it anyway,” I told him. It was amazing to me how exhausted I felt after that session. When I started talking to Gage in English, I realized how long I’d been sitting in that room speaking in Russian. It always felt like a culture shock to switch
languages like that.
“Well, I’d like to see him make it through here.” Gage patted the door. He started to walk away from the room and put an arm across my tired shoulders. “Come on. Let’s get you a drink and maybe call it a night. What do you say?”
I nodded. “I’d like that. I’m definitely done for the day.” I reached up and held his hand on my shoulder.
Chapter 8
Gage
“Let’s run by your place and pick some of your things up so you have overnight clothes,” I said to Julia as I let go of her shoulder at the bottom of the stairs.
“That sounds good,” she said as she trudged up the stairs ahead of me.