Seeds of Iniquity (In the Company of Killers, #4)(13)

Nora smiles with satisfaction.

The four of us just sit here in a sort of shock, but I think equally relieved he wasn’t about to confess something more unforgivable. James Woodard may be a bumbling heart attack on two legs, but we’ve all grown quite fond of him.

“Shit, did he just say he has eight daughters with five different women?” Dorian says, astonished.

“I think he did,” Niklas answers with humor in his voice. “Who woulda thought he gets more * than you, Flynn?”

Dorian sneers and shakes his head, looking back at the screen.

Nora makes eye contact with the hidden camera again.

“See how easy that was?” she says. “Actually, that was a lot easier than I thought it’d be.” She interlaces her fingers on the table. “Now, Mr. Woodard, that wasn’t so hard, was it? Doesn’t the truth feel liberating?” She nibbles on her bottom lip and cocks her head to one side with a shrug. “Of course, it would be much more liberating if you told your wife, but you’re too much of a coward for that, aren’t you?”

He nods nervously looking downward, coiling his pudgy fingers within his lap, his foot steadily tapping against the floor.

“A-Are my daughters OK?”

“I don’t know,” she says without flinching. “The now isn’t important really. How they’re going to be by the time this is all over is what you should be worried about.”

“Is that what you want?” he says. “For me to confess to my wife? To tell my daughters they have sisters? I-I don’t understand what this has to do with anything. I-I don’t see why you’d kidnap them—.”

Nora puts up a finger.

“You’ll figure it out,” she says with a small shrug. “You have plenty of time to think about it.”

Woodard’s bushy brows bunch in his forehead.

“That’s it?” he asks, as confused as any of us are. “That’s all you wanted to know? I thought you were going to try forcing information about the rest of us—”

“I don’t need you to do that,” she says with confidence. “The others will tell me what I want to know, all on their own.”

Confidence just may be the kink in Nora’s armor because somehow I doubt she’ll get anything out of most of us. Dorian, maybe, because Tessa’s life is on the line and clearly he still loves his ex-wife. Me—it’s a very real possibility that she’ll get me to talk because of Dina, and because if it’s just personal secrets that she wants and not information on our Order, then I’m willing to give up my secrets to save Dina’s life.

Have I ever slept with a girl? Sure I have—I lived with dozens of them for nine years when I was a prisoner in Mexico. Nothing to be ashamed of, sleeping with a woman, although it is a little embarrassing. And I wouldn’t want to give Niklas and Dorian that kind of ammunition to get under my skin—they’d love that.

Have I ever stolen anything? Well, theft is sort of something I’m quite good at and I use it to my advantage in the field often. But Victor already knows this. Niklas and Dorian and Fredrik and anyone else in our Order, not so much, because I’ve stolen from all of them to keep tabs on their personal lives for Victor. OK, now that might be damaging.

Maybe I’m not giving Nora enough credit.

Now I’m nervous.

But Victor?

No. She’ll never get anything out of him. It scares me because I want Dina to live and if she dies, the last person in the world I can handle being the cause of it, is Victor. If she dies because of him, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive him.

Niklas?

I shake my head thinking about it to myself. Niklas, I feel is exactly how he told her he is before he walked out of that room—an open f*cking book. So, I don’t know what she expects to get out of him, if there’s anything to get at all.

Fredrik?

Oh, how sad it’s going to be for this woman who has truly—pardon the cliché—bitten off way more than she can chew. Pulling information from the lips like blood from a vein is Fredrik’s domain, one I doubt she wants to tread upon.

“That was too easy,” Dorian speaks up.

Niklas laughs lightly under his breath. “Yeah well look who’s on the stand as the first witness. Victor, are you sure you fully tested this guy before giving him access to everything?”

Victor nods.

“James Woodard is trustworthy,” he says. “He may be skittish, but don’t let that fool you.”

Nora smiles into the camera.

“Who’s coming to confession next?” she says.

I don’t want to go. This bitch makes me uncomfortable.

“I’ll go next,” I speak out against my inner thoughts.

“Are you sure?” Victor says.

I nod.

“Yeah, I want to get this over with.” At least that part is true.

I get up from the rolling chair, tugging the ends of my black dress back over my thighs.

“The sooner we get this over with,” I say, “the sooner we get them back.”

Dorian nods.

Niklas just looks at me with no emotion in his face.

I look at Victor, a sort of quiet contemplation in my eyes. I don’t want them to listen to me confess anything to this woman, but I know that they will need to keep the audio open in case Nora says something important. So, I don’t bother telling them how much I don’t like this, and I leave the room and head for the elevator, passing a rattled James Woodard up in the long stretch of hallway on my way down.