Her body sagged against the ropes, and a look of relief flashed in her eyes. “You won’t hurt me? You will let me go? Please, I don’t know anything.”
This time I smiled. A cold, heartless smile.
Her eyes widened. The look of distress on her face almost made me laugh. How naïve of her. Panic and horror painted her face as she trembled with the uncertainty of her fate.
I waited.
One second. Two. Three. Four.
With each passing second, her panic grew.
Five. Six. Seven. Eight.
She cried silently. I just smiled, or was it a half sadistic smile? Probably.
Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve.
I heard the door behind us open. It closed with a bang. I heard the sound of high heels clicking against the hard floor.
“Did someone call me?” the intruder said to my back. I felt the smile in the intruder’s voice.
I didn’t answer. My gaze stayed on Anna, unflinching. Although she was looking behind me now. Her already wide eyes widened more.
“I said I wasn’t going to hurt you. But that doesn’t mean someone else can’t,” I murmured so only she could hear.
“No, no, no,” she whispered in alarm as I pulled back, my back straightening as I stood to my full height. “Who are you?” Her voice trembled, but the words were spoken clear enough for everyone to hear.
“My name is not important.”
The words were softly spoken, but the voice held such dark promises. I took a step back and watched Anna shake in fear. Dread filled her expression, and her lips quivered with the effort to keep her tears at bay.
I turned around and faced the intruder. The side of my lips tilted up in a small smile.
Only she would dress up for a job like this. Black leather jacket. Tight black leather pants. Red heels. The hood of the jacket was over her head, covering half of her face. It was used to camouflage her appearance.
One second passed. Another.
She lifted her hands up and pulled the hood down, showing her face. Her face was as flawless as ever, with her lips painted red. Only this time, she looked different. Her expression showed no emotion.
Blonde hair fell down her back as she looked straight at the tied-up woman behind me.
A smile spread across her lips, although it was nothing close to welcoming or gentle. No, it was a sadistic smile. A predator ready to hunt its prey.
The woman standing in front of me looked very much like the killer she was.
Nina.
She worked undercover for me, but she was also a killer. A trained assassin. Someone who did my dirty work.
And by dirty work I meant torturing the answers out of women who refused to cooperate.
She took a step forward. Another. A few more steps until she walked past me and stood in front of Anna.
“What you need to know is that by the time I’m done, you won’t remember your name. Or the difference between living and dead,” she started, her voice low and deadly.
Leaning forward until their faces were close, noses almost touching, Nina’s lips curled up. “I am your worst nightmare, baby. I am what you call…Death.”
Those were the same lines she fed her captives. They would tremble in fear and sometimes piss their pants. The reaction she got from Anna was no different.
Nina was good at her job. Better than most. She did her job with a passion.
Nina had the same darkness that my men and I had in us. She craved blood. She had the need to kill.
“Your tools and everything you need are in the bag next to your feet,” Viktor announced, finally speaking up.
“Thank you,” she replied, not glancing away from her captive.
Shaking my head, I rolled my shoulders, trying to relieve the tension there. “She’s all yours,” I muttered before turning around and striding away.
I walked out of the house with my men following closely behind me.
Nina worked alone, not that she needed help.
Nikolay closed the door as I leaned against the wall. “So?” Viktor asked.
My reply was simple. “We wait.”
That was exactly what we did. We waited.
It was mostly quiet, but if I listened carefully, the muffled screams could be heard. They filled our ears as we stayed by the door. It shouldn’t have taken her hours to break Anna—but knowing Nina, she was just taking her time and enjoying this.
I could imagine what was going on in there, but I stopped thinking after a few minutes. Nina liked to get creative. She always surprised us, but whatever she did was always effective. At the end of the day, we got the answers we needed, and that was all that mattered.
How we got it didn’t matter.
After three hours, although I was surprised Anna lasted this long, the door finally opened. Nina walked out, looking fresh and surprisingly decent from what just occurred inside.
But then again, Nina was a clean assassin. As clean as a killer could get.