Page 105 of Beneath the Light of the Moon

“You might fight it now, Anika, but I can be patient. I’ll wait for you to come around.”

She composed herself enough to respond. “I won’t.”

Stooping to her level, he wedged himself between her bound legs once more, the action mimicking vulnerability, but she didn’t fall for it. Bringing the gun in close, Mikko pushed it into her sternum. “You’re a bad habit.” She swallowed thickly. “And you know what I do to bad habits?” Mikko asked, his other hand dragging down her thigh toward her knee, “Ibreakthem.”

Anika shook her head. “Is that what happened to Samantha? Did you break her?”

His body stiffened at the mention of his high school girlfriend’s name. “My father did that for me.”

“Of course, he dideverythingfor you. What about Ellie?”

He laughed, the sound more relaxed than moments before, his emotions were a rollercoaster that Anika was finding hard to follow. His gloved hand traced a lazy circle around her kneecap while she clenched her teeth, fighting the urge to gasp.

Damn this toxic connection.

His closeness, her anger, and the adrenaline coursing through her was doing weird things to her brain and body. Heat blazed across her skin making her mind dizzy.

“She decided I was…too much for her tastes,” he finally answered.

“You make it sound so simple. So innocent.”

“It was. She left quietly.”

“How much did you pay her? Did you steal her clothes too? Break into her house?” Anika’s words were steady despite the fury building inside her. Along with something else…

“You’d be surprised what I can convince people to do.” His hand was still leisurely touching her.

“I’m not like the people you deal with.”

“No?” A tense pause, then, “Maybe you’re right, maybe you’re worse.”

Anika scoffed. “How has no one shot you yet?”

“Oh, they have, but they haven’t been successful beyond anything merely superficial.”

“Let me try then,professor,”she murmured.

His breathy chuckle at the nickname made her gaze cut up to his awaiting one. “Maybe one day I’ll let you.”

Anika’s lips pressed together tightly, everything leading her to this moment threatening to spill out.

With that, he reached back over to the table, setting the gun down and grabbing a roll of duct tape. “But now that you’ve gotten all that out of your system, I think”—the sound of tape ripping free of its backing echoed in her kitchen—“it’s time forthis.”

Anika’s spine stiffened against the chair. “I thought this was an interrogation…which involvestalking?”

“I can’t have you screaming and alerting all your neighbors now, can I?” The sticky piece of tape he held plastered itself over her mouth before she could spit at him. Her mumbled curses were trapped behind the tape.

What a dick.

“Did you ever ask Ivan how he felt when he was in this position weeks ago?” Silenced, Anika sat there, waiting. His green eyes roved over her, the feeling burning her skin as if he was physically still touching her. “Last time I saw him, this was how he looked.”

“I didn’t kill him,”but the words were muffled, indiscernible.

“I’m going to ask you again, Ms. Naidu—a yes or no question—if you killed Ivan.” He caressed the rope binding her wrists as if to remind her she was at his mercy.

She shook her head.

“Really?” Her brow raised in question, mute while he continued. “Because when I ran a background check on you it came back clean. Too clean if you ask me, but Cristiano has called me paranoid before,so I ignored it…for a while.