“Why does it matter what you believe?” she asks, her voice strong and steady, even though she’s no doubt terrified. “You’re going to kill me anyway.”
Gabe’s head whips around when he hears that and he jumps out of the car, grabs his rifle, and tosses me his cell phone. “Keep the police updated. They should be right behind us.” I nod and watch him disappear into the darkness.
I don’t know what he’s going to do, but I know it’s something I can’t even fathom. As long as it gets Dani out of there safely, I don’t care.
“What makes you so sure we’re going to kill you?” Matteo asks.
I can picture the sneer on his face as he taunts her.
“You didn’t lure me to an abandoned building, show up with two of your goons, and interrogate me about my story just to let me walk away.”
Two goons? She’s telling us how many men there are.
I get on Gabe’s phone and relay the information to the dispatcher just as two squad cars and a SWAT vehicle pull up behind me.
Matteo’s maniacal laugh pours from the phone. “You’re smarter than you look, Ms. Eriksson. I shouldn’t be wasting all our time.”
Boom.
A single gunshot rings out, the blast echoing through the phone and going straight to my heart.
My heart stops.
The piercing ring of the gunshot reverberates in my ears and through my chest.
Matteo only fired a shot in the air—a warning shot or maybe to try to scare the shit out of me—but it could just as easily have been in my head.
I have no clue why he didn’t just kill me, but the smile on his face tells me he enjoyed scaring me almost as much as he would have enjoyed leaving my dead body here.
Sadistic fuck!
Somehow, I manage to school my features—letting this man know he terrifies me would be a colossal mistake.
“Now, Ms. Eriksson, let’s stop dancing around the issue and get down to business. You and I both know that I need to know what sort of documentation you kept regarding your meetings with Paul, where those notes are located, and who has access to them. You may be telling me the truth about not telling anyone about your story, but we both know you wouldn’t start investigating a story like this without meticulously documenting every single thing your source revealed.”
Shit. Matteo is smarter than I gave him credit for.
I figured he was just another goon, another meathead Abello used for muscle and intimidation. Apparently, he has some intelligence. It must be why Abello trusts him so much.
My eyes flicker between the two other men standing behind Paul, just to the left of me. Now, these two, who haven’t spoken a word, are clearly just muscle, but not Matteo.
Maybe I can appeal to his intelligence to buy more time. I know if that call stayed connected, Savage will come for me. He has to.
Stall.
“All right, if I tell you everything Paul told me, and where you can find my notes, will you let me go?”
Of course they won’t.
I know that. But, I need to keep him talking and I’m not above playing the blonde bimbo if I need to.
He smirks at me, and the evil glint in his eyes reminds me of a cat toying with a mouse caught under its paw. He knows he has the upper hand, but he enjoys his job too much to end this quickly. He’s also too smart to kill me before he’s sure he has every single piece of evidence relating to his boss.
“If I did let you go, what sort of guarantee would I have that you won’t immediately run to the police, or the media, and reveal everything anyway?”
“You would have my word.”
Matteo drops his head back and his dark laughter echoes throughout the empty warehouse. The two goons join him, though I doubt they have any idea what he’s laughing at.
“Oh, Ms. Eriksson, it really is too bad we had to meet under these circumstances, because, frankly, I think I really like you.”
Use it.
“I agree. Another day, another time, things might have been different.” I take a step closer to him. Maybe he’s dumb enough to fall for it, and maybe, just maybe, I can get my hand on his gun before I end up dead.
He eyes me suspiciously and steps to the side, closer to Paul and his goons.
Why the hell does he have to be the only smart evil henchman in history?
“Unfortunately, Ms. Eriksson, I have my orders, so let’s not make this any harder than it has to be. Give me what I need, and I will end this quickly. If you don’t, I’ll have to make this very unpleasant for you.”
“I can handle pain,” I say with fake boldness, but my body is screaming for me to run. I’m sure Matteo knows ways to inflict pain I can’t even imagine and there’s no way I want to find out. But revealing information from a source is also not an option.