Seeds of Iniquity (In the Company of Killers, #4)(50)

I don’t realize until it’s too late that there are tears in the corners of my eyes. I take a deep breath and hold them down.

“My brother’s loyal to you,” Niklas says now with sincerity rather than ridicule. “I never thought I’d see the day that he would love any woman, Izabel. Never. Screw what Nora said to me when I was in there with her, that shit about me never wanting to be in love, about how I avoided it—that was true for the most part—I didn’t want that shit—but the difference between me and my brother was that I was susceptible to it and Victor wasn’t.”

I don’t look at Niklas, but I stop pacing and stand with my back to him, and he knows I’m listening.

“Victor was always the one telling me, when I’d start to get close to a hit or an assignment on my missions, that I needed to be careful. It never happened to him. He warned me, time and time again not to get too involved emotionally. But I didn’t listen and Claire ended up dead.”

“She didn’t end up dead because of you,” I point out. “There were other people after her. She would’ve died even if you’d never met her.”

“Maybe so,” he says. “But this isn’t about me. Look, my brother loves you. He’ll do anything to protect you—he was even going to kill me, remember? Jealousy just makes you look bad.”

I shake my head, stung by his words.

“Niklas, I didn’t go in there and attack Nora just because I was jealous. Yeah, of course it was a part of it, it was the last straw—I just couldn’t hold it all in anymore. I tried”—crossing my arms, I look away from him again—“but I couldn’t help myself. She has my mother, Niklas! She has come in here and scattered all of our lives around like toys—I can’t take it anymore!”

There’s a knock on the door from inside the interrogation room. I become quiet in an instant, trying to compose myself and failing.

Niklas punches in the code to let Victor out.

“I’ve gotta take a piss and find some food,” Niklas says, his version of ‘I’ll let you two be alone’.

He shoves both hands into the pockets of his jeans, the muscles running along his arms hard and defined down at his sides. He walks away down the hall.

I can’t even look Victor in the eyes. I look at the floor instead.

“She was only trying to get under your skin, Izabel,” he says. “To prove a point.”

I raise my eyes to him, filled with anger and exhaustion.

“And a point she proved. Bra-vo.” I sneer and begin to pace again.

“Are you…threatened by her?” he asks with heavy curiosity in his voice.

“No,” I say, though it’s not entirely true. “Victor, I know what just happened made me look like some crazy, jealous, psycho girlfriend, and yeah my reaction was triggered by the things she said to you, but that wasn’t the only reason I went in there. I trust you, OK? That’s not what this is about—this has gone on long enough. The way she’s f*cking with all of our heads.” I grit my teeth and clench my fists and my breathing picks up. “And you want to know what enrages me the most about all of this? You want to know what really and honestly triggered me going in there?”

I step right up to him.

He doesn’t answer, but he doesn’t have to.

“I’ve been trying to find excuses as to why any of us would put ourselves through this,” I begin, my voice stiffening with every syllable. “None of us, certainly not you, would even give this bitch five minutes of our time in any other situation. The cleaners would’ve already mopped her blood up off the floor and gotten rid of her body by now.” I pause, trying to steady my breath and to arrange my words because what I’m about to say is going to leave a bitter taste on my tongue. “The only reason any of us are going through this ridiculous bullshit is because of the innocent people we love, because of ties to the outside world that we—I—just can’t cut.” I slash a hand through the air, angry at the truth.

We stare into each other’s eyes for a short but tense moment. There’s something else I want to say, about Dina, but I’m afraid. I’m afraid because my heart tells me it’s true, and I don’t want it to be.

I glance down at the floor again, but only for a fleeting moment when I resolve to lay it out on the table, regardless of how much I fear the truth.

“You have no intentions in confessing to Nora, do you?”

He says nothing.

“What she said is true, isn’t it?” I go on, my heart pounding violently. “You’re not going to tell her anything because your organization is more important to you than I am.”

Victor just looks at me, but I see something shift in his green-blue eyes, something so faint that I can’t decipher. I want it to be disbelief, heartbreak, something that would indicate my accusation is wrong and unfounded. But I’m left with nothing. No words. No answer of any kind, which to me can only mean one thing.

I storm away in the opposite direction that Niklas had gone, and leave Victor standing there.





I sit alone outside on the roof of the five-story building, looking down at the city streets; very few cars weaving through them casually this late hour. A stoplight out ahead has been red for five minutes at least; the single car waiting for it to turn green just sitting there patiently. So unlike me, who would’ve blazed through it angrily by now and flipped the camera off on my way. I laugh derisively to myself thinking about the irony.