Innocence (Tales of Olympus #1)(57)

“What is it? Is something wrong?”

“I don’t think I have to tell you that Marcus Ubeli is a dangerous man.”

Was this guy kidding? “Yeah, I figured that out when he locked me in a room for over a week with a collar around my neck. You don’t have to convince me that he’s a bad guy. Preaching to the choir.”

“Good, good,” the police captain said. “Then you’ll be happy to testify against him in a court of law.”

“What?” Cora shoved back from the table and stood, holding her hands up. “What are you talking about?”

“Well you’ve come in here with a pretty fantastic story,” Captain Martin said. “We’ve been trying to nail Ubeli for years on racketeering, drug trafficking, money laundering, you name it. But kidnapping and captivity will make for one hell of a story, especially if you have any insights into the rest of his business dealings.”

Cora was shaking her head the entire time he spoke. “I don’t have anything to do with that. I want to get out of here. Right now. I want one of your guys to drive me as far west as you can take me and I’ll disappear.” She held her hands up again. “I don’t want anything to do with Marcus Ubeli. I want to forget he even exists.”

“Well, that’s not likely to happen, seeing as how you’re married to him. But if you work with us—”

“I’m not going to testify!” Was this guy nuts?

The captain’s eyebrows scrunched together. “So maybe your so-called captivity wasn’t as unwanted as you’re calling it. You know lying to the police carries a penalty of—”

What the fuck? “I didn’t lie to you! I wasn’t lying about being kidnapped. Well, I mean, at the beginning, I thought it was the start to our honeymoon. But it all changed when he—when he— How dare you even suggest that I wanted what he was—” She pressed her hands to her head. “I didn’t want to be there with him. Not like that. But I don’t want to testify…”

“If you’re worried that he’ll get to you, punish you for talking to us—”

She flinched at the captain’s choice of words. Punish. That’s exactly what Marcus would do. Punish her in the most delicious way possible. Make her submit to his will and make her like it. “I’m not afraid of that…” Okay, she was. Because if she stayed to testify, there was no way Marcus wouldn’t find a way to get her back.

She jumped to her feet. “I want to get out of here.”

“Mrs. Ubeli—”

“Don’t call me that,” she snapped.

The captain’s face hardened. “You want to see what sort of monster you married?” He opened the file and photos spilled out. Bodies splayed and bloody, eyes open, faces contorted in fear, frozen in the moment they realized their oncoming death.

She recognized one face. The curly haired man who’d roofied her. He’d said he was following orders. He’d tried to warn her.

Now he was dead.

I’m gonna take care of you.

“This is what your husband does,” the captain ranted. “This is how he conducts his business.”

“Do you have proof?”

“No. That’s why we need you.”

Light dawned. Cora scraped the photos up with her fingernails and stacked them into a pile. “You want me to testify against him somehow. Say he did these things and confessed to me.”

Excitement flickered in the captain’s eyes. “Yes.”

“You want me to lie.”

He said nothing.

This city is a beast, Marcus told her once. Innocents fall and the criminals go unpunished.

“My husband doesn’t think he’s a criminal,” she told the captain quietly. “He thinks he’s dispensing justice.” Even when he didn’t want to. There were moments when they were together, where he hesitated. He could’ve destroyed her for what her family did to his sister. Instead, he’d…

“That’s what the cops and courts are for.”

The police do nothing. They’re either corrupt, or have no power. And here was proof. The captain wanted her to lie on the stand. She wasn’t about to give her freedom up in order to satisfy some police captain’s wet dreams of glory in capturing a notorious crime boss.

She just wanted to get the hell out of here.

“If you testify for the DA, we could get you what you want. Set you up with a new life. New identity. Ubeli would never be able to touch you. You’d be safe. Free.”

“You mean witness protection?”

He nodded. “Federal marshals would have your back. You could live somewhere nice and sunny, all year round. Pick your paradise.”

Cora’s eyes wandered to the mirror that covered one wall. She looked tiny. Pale with shadows under her eyes, her long hair snarled. Who was she to try to stand up against the Lord of the Underworld?

She closed her eyes, not able to bear looking at herself anymore. There were no good choices. She wasn’t a little girl anymore, shielded in her mother’s controlling arms. The world wasn’t a pretty place and she had to face it.

“No. I won’t testify.”

Captain Martin didn’t say another word. He simply picked up the folder he brought in with him and strode from the room. The door shut behind him with a heavy clang.