Page 38 of Ice Cold Liar (Ice Breaker Cold Case #14)

Chapter Twenty

“This is bullshit!” The bellow could clearly be heard even through the closed hospital room door. “You can’t do this to me! I want a lawyer! I know my freaking rights! Bullshit!”

In the bed, their suspect twisted and heaved, as much as he could twist and heave with one hand being cuffed to the railing and with the other hand having recently been sewn up and bandaged.

“You’re not breaking the cuffs,” she said, annoyed as she approached Brock. Who did the guy think he was? Superman? “But you might rip out all the stitches that the doctor just put in your hand so I suggest you settle down.”

At her voice, his head whipped toward her.

Madeline pasted a bright smile on her face. Time to play the game. “Hello, Brock.”

“This is bullshit!” he cried.

“I believe you’ve noted that a few times, yes.

” She dipped her head forward in a commiserating nod.

“However, it’s technically not bullshit.

This scene is about to be you…answering every single question that I have.

Spoiler alert, I have lots of questions.

About you. About your dead boss Ivan. About the woman you tried to burn alive. ”

He heaved up, dragging himself to a sitting position. The perp was bruised and battered, with scrapes all along his neck and arms.

“You look like you got the crap beaten out of you,” she murmured. “And here you went in with your whole gang to take out Naomi Romano. Bet this is not the result you expected, is it?”

Colson snorted.

Lateisha didn’t make a sound.

Fury twisted Brock’s face. “I ain’t telling you nothing!”

An annoyed sigh was her response. “Do I look like your local cops?”

“What?”

“Sorry, let me rephrase…” Her hands went to her hips. “Do I look like I’m going to give you an option on responding?”

He blinked.

“Colson, go stand outside by the door, will you? When he starts screaming again, I want to make sure we aren’t disturbed.”

Colson immediately double-timed it for the door.

“Wait!” Brock’s voice broke. “I want a lawyer. I want a lawyer, now! ”

Madeline rolled her eyes. “No.”

His eyes practically bulged from his head. “You can’t?—”

“I can do anything I want. You see, I don’t exist.” She was not in the mood for this crap to continue. She had places to be. Other cases to work.

“The fuck you don’t exist?—”

“I have a fake name,” Madeline cut through his snarling words.

The man was giving her a headache. “I have a fake life. And I have the power to do anything to you that I want. You see, I’m not a cop.

Told you that.” She knew that she’d mentioned that important fact.

The local cops had been the ones so dead set on getting the guy patched up.

Frankly, she didn’t give a real damn if he bled out or not.

But she’d had to maintain the appearance of caring in front of them.

Only, there were no more local police eyes on her.

Time for her to get business handled. “I don’t play by the rules that constrain local officers.

In fact, I make my own rules.” Something that brought her great pleasure in life.

“You tried to attack a friend of mine last night. Granted, he pisses me off most days, but…I still like him. You went after Eb. You and your whole gang?—”

He lunged forward.

Lateisha put a scalpel to his throat.

“ What the fuck?” he breathed as he stiffened. “You can’t do that—this is a hospital!”

“That’s why I used a scalpel,” Lateisha replied without any hesitation. “Seemed fitting. I do keep a knife strapped to my ankle, FYI. But this felt better. More in tune with the scene, you know.”

Brock gasped like a fish tossed from the water onto a dock.

“Lateisha is very good at getting reluctant individuals to cooperate,” Madeline said.

His still bulging eyes darted to Lateisha.

“Hi,” she said, flashing him a sunny grin. “I like to excel at my job. I’m very goal-oriented.”

“You’re crazy.” Those bulging eyes came back to Madeline. “You’re both crazy.”

“No, I’m impatient. Also bored.” She also never enjoyed it when someone called her crazy. A real annoyance, that was. And Madeline had already been annoyed. She’d had to wait far too long for him to be patched up. “You tried to torch Naomi and my friend Eb hours ago.”

“I—”

“Your prints are all over the gas containers. Plus, we have security footage from the scene. The property was wired like you wouldn’t believe.

So, yes, that means we have you on video.

Every moment. So don’t waste my time with denials.

You and your gang were right there on the scene when I arrived.

But I’m betting this wasn’t your first fire, was it?

” Though, in this particular instance, it had just been an attempted arson attack.

Eb had stopped Brock from actually igniting the safe house. “You set the fire at Naomi’s home.”

His head jerked. The scalpel drew a drop of blood.

“So what?” Brock snapped.

Oh, damn. Okay, so he was just going to confess. Nice.

“Bitch had it coming,” he grumbled.

Interesting response. “I did some digging while I was waiting on the docs to finish with you.” Her head tilted.

She’d always hated being idle, so Madeline had used the time to her advantage.

“There have been quite a few fires in the area. Mostly—as odd as this sounds—targeting individuals who had lodged complaints against Ivan Sokolov. They’d said he trashed their businesses or extorted them or stole from them.

So many complaints. So many fires. Weird, isn’t it? ”

He swallowed. The drop of blood that had been drawn tracked slowly down his thick neck.

“Let me see if I can guess what might have happened…when Ivan got angry, he liked to send a message to his enemies? And that message typically came via fire?”

No response. So annoying. Madeline continued, “Lateisha was going to be a doctor. Once upon a time. But I recruited her and convinced her that a job with me would be far more rewarding than she could ever imagine. However, she learned a great deal of helpful info from medical school. Picked up all kinds of handy skills. Fun fact, she can perform a perfect vivisection.”

“What in the hell is a vivisection?”

“Oh, you don’t know?” Madeline laughed. “If you don’t know, then you really, really don’t want to find out. You’ll be alive during the process, you see. That’s the whole point. You have to be alive when the cutting begins?—”

“You can’t do this! I know my rights! ” He yanked hard against the cuff and his whole face flushed a dark red.

He seemed to miss the point that she didn’t give a flying fuck about his rights. “You set the fire at Naomi’s house. You took the bat from her truck, and you went back and you used it on Ivan, didn’t you?” She strode to the left side of the bed, taking the spot that Colson had vacated.

He heaved out a breath and shook his head. “I ain’t telling you?—”

The scalpel dug deeper. “Whoops,” Lateisha said. “My finger slipped.”

Madeline caught Brock’s chin in her hand. She turned his head fully toward her. Enough fun and games. “When I am done with you, I can have you dropped in the deepest, darkest prison in the world. No one will look for you, and I can assure you, no one will ever find you.”

A tremor shook his body as he stared into her eyes. “I just—I wanted to be in charge, you know?”

“Um.”

“Ivan always said…he said you had to scare your enemies. You had to make them fear you. I-I was just trying to?—”

“Trying to take over?” Madeline cut in. “Trying to be the baddest bastard on the block?”

His breath sawed in and out. In and out. Finally, voice dropping, he rasped, “I know Ivan worked with you.”

“Um.”

“I know he made deals with Hudson.”

“Ivan made deals because he had intel that was valuable to Hudson. To me. Contacts in Russia that were valuable. I don’t see how you can offer me anything.”

“I can!” Brock cried. “I can…” His voice trailed away.

Oh, no. He didn’t get to stop. “Talk to me. Convince me. Tell me everything I want to know. Then I’ll decide if what you have is good enough for me. Otherwise, get ready for a swift trip to hell and a drop in a prison hole so dark and deep that you will think you’ve been buried alive.”

He blinked. Twice. Three times.

And, with minimal effort, with barely just a few drops of blood and just with the threat of a prison that didn’t exist, she got her confession. She got exactly what she wanted. Pretty much in record time.

Because in her experience, the louder the bellows, the faster the prey broke. The toughest-looking criminals were often the ones who had the greatest fear buried in their hearts.

It’s all show on the outside. When it comes right down to it, the worst bullies are always the ones who are the most afraid.

A lesson she’d learned when she was just sixteen years old.

Her knees pressed into the mattress as Naomi straddled Eb’s hips. They shouldn’t be doing this. She knew it. They…

He surged up into her, his hips leaving the bed as he thrust hard and deep, and Naomi’s eyes squeezed closed because Eb felt so insanely good in her.

Her hands fell against his chest. They’d gotten to her bedroom. They’d stripped. Then gone straight to fucking.

How can I want him this badly? This soon? “Are you…” Don’t ask. Don’t ask. She should not ask, not now because this was not the time or the place but… “Are you really an assassin?”

His hands bit into her hips. He lifted her up and down. Up and down. “Yes.”

She had to bite her lip to hold back her cries. She didn’t know where Hunter was, and the last thing Naomi wanted was for him to hear her.

Up and down.

Deeper. Wilder. Harder.

His gaze burned at her. “But they all…fucking deserved to die.”

Her head shook. Her body shook.

His right hand moved to work her clit.

“I’m good at killing,” Eb told her.

Can’t be talking about this now. This can’t be happening. Eb can’t be saying ? —

“I’m even better at making you come.” He squeezed her clit.