“Yeah,” she replied, looking at him. She squinted at him. “Thanks, you know, for knocking me unconscious and kidnapping me.”
He puffed out his cheeks in thought. “I feel like you’re not entirely sincere.”
“I’m not,” she deadpanned flatly. “Do it again and I’ll rip your balls off to hang on my Christmas tree.”
“The alternative was leaving you behind and possibly being taken by Norwood. I made a choice. Deal with it.”
“Tate wants to come with us,” I told him.
“Tate wasn’t invited,” he told me with a tight smile. “It’s a family thing.”
I grabbed her hand. “And Tate is my family.”
Dimitri paused for a minute, watching us before he sighed in defeat. “Fine. Whatever. But we’re leaving now.”
I squeezed Tate’s hand. “Okay. Let’s go.”
21
Skye
It was pretty freaking cool to watch Tate’s face shift from skepticism to amazement to shock as we traveled through the house and back into the mountain.
“This place is insane,” she whispered to me as we crossed into the prison section I had been in earlier.
I nodded, my eyes catching on the man leaning casually against the wall ahead without a care in the world. He casually typed out a message on his cell phone before pushing it into his pocket and straightening as we approached.
Amazing how my father could be completely calm one minute and a bloodthirsty psychopath the next.
Nikolai smiled warmly at Tate. “And you must be the lovely Tate.”
“Yeah,” she said quietly. “Hi, I guess.”
Nikolai didn’t seem deterred by her uneasy demeanor at all. “Welcome to my home, although I am sorry it is due to such unfortunate circumstances. My condolences on the loss of your father.”
Tate winced, pain flashing across her face and pulling her features taut for a second.
“Tate knows Elias, too,” I said, needing to change the focus. “She wanted to be here when we questioned him.”
“Unfortunately there isn’t a viewing gallery in this room,” Nikolai replied, still smiling. “But there is a small one-way window she is free to observe from.”
My eyes narrowed. “Or she could come with us into the room.”
His lips thinned slightly. “I’m afraid it wasn’t a suggestion, little wolf. Your friend may watch from the other side of the glass or she may return to her room.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but Tate laid a hand on my arm.
“It’s fine,” she murmured. “I’ll watch from the other side.”
“Wonderful,” Nikolai remarked, all smiles and cheerful again. “Dimitri, if you would please escort Tate to the side room?”
“Sure,” Dimitri agreed. He jerked his chin. “This way.” He led Tate around the corner.
Nikolai inched closer to me. “I’m very aware that you’re protective of your friend, Skye, but you would do well not to contradict me in front of others, especially when we step inside this room.”
I glared at him. “You’re not my Alpha.”
“No, I’m not,” he agreed, almost coldly. “But I am the Alpha of this pack, and you are my guest. You’re here because you’re my daughter, and I wish for you to have the answers you need. But if you cannot conduct yourself appropriately then I’ll have you and your friend taken back to your rooms until the plane is ready to depart.”
“Fine,” I agreed reluctantly. He did have a point—he had a lot more going on here than I did, and he was the Alpha. I had made it abundantly clear that I was only here until the next plane rolled out.
His lips turned up into a soft smile as he watched me for a second.
“What?” I asked, frowning.
“I wonder where you get your passion from,” he said. “I saw the same fire in your mother before, but apparently I’m also known to have a temper.”
I could still see him standing over Linden, blood dripping from his fingers. Yeah, he had a temper, too.
“Maybe both,” I suggested with a shrug, unable to hide my own smile. As terrifying as Nikolai Dashkov could be, there was something in him that called to me. Some primal instinct that made me want to trust him.
His grin widened. “Indeed. Shall we?”
He pushed open the door and I followed him into the small room.
There was a long metal table. On the other side of it, Elias was cuffed to an eyebolt in the floor, his shoulders hunched. He looked up as we entered, looking every bit his old age. His white hair was disheveled and his beard unkempt. Exhaustion had settled into the crevasses of every wrinkle on his face. I almost felt bad.
Until I remembered he knew where Maren was. He had lied to me, and even kept a file on me.
Three chairs were on the other side of the table. Nikolai took the one in the middle and nudged the one to his left with his foot.
I sat down in it as the door next to the one-way-mirror opened and Dimitri walked in. He dropped into the chair to Nikolai’s right with a grin, leaning back in the chair.
Elias glanced around the room, tugging at his restraints. “Your hospitality isn’t as I recall, Alpha.”
“And your loyalty isn’t as I recall.” Nikolai smiled, his teeth flashing. “I suppose we both must carry the burden of our disappointments.”
Elias looked at Nikolai. “I see you found your heir.”
“Yes, no thanks to you.” Nikolai crossed his ankle over his knee.
“You figured it out?” Elias asked Dimitri. He still hadn’t looked at me. “How?”
“I found the file the morning of the bombing,” Dimitri confirmed. “You got sloppy, old man. But even without it, did you really think we wouldn’t figure it out?”
I was over being ignored.
“Why the hell did you have a file on me in the first place?” I demanded, leaning forward and bracing my forearms on the table.
Elias looked at me and sighed heavily. “You must believe that I had your best intentions at heart, Skye.”
“Are you from Norwood?” I asked, my voice clipped and callous.
“Yes.”
“You’re helping Norwood?”
“Yes.”
“Norwood is allies with Long Mesa?”
He looked down. “Yes.”
“Then you’re helping the very people I ran from,” I hissed, slapping an open palm on the table. “You know what they did. You know what happened to me, to my mother.”
Elias looked affronted. “Skye, I would never condone what happened to either of you.”
“That's exactly what you did!” I screamed, almost forgetting Nikolai was sitting next to me. “You were there, Elias! You were in the same goddamn room with me! You heard what they did to Bella, to Zara, to Mom. I told you what they had done to me.”
He looked up, the guilt on his features undeniable. “What I’ve done is nothing like the crimes your pack committed.”
“Bullshit!” I snapped. “You’re just as guilty as they are. Maybe you’re even more twisted because you acted like you were my friend. At least I knew where I stood with everyone else.”