Page 46 of Kidnapped By the Boss

Chapter Fifteen: Vincent

I didn’t know what I was going to do about Katya, but I was feeling backed into a corner. She pegged me easily with my bullshit excuse that I wanted to keep her close for the sake of having someone to fight with me. She knew that I knew her forte was in stealth and espionage, not fighting; not that Katya couldn’t take a hit, or give one for that matter. But if I was going to keep someone behind for protection, it wouldn’t be her. That I even tried to sell her that poor excuse was an insult to her intelligence, and it didn’t matter if I believed she should continue in my ranks in an official capacity or not, the very last thing I wanted to do was pretend as if Katya was stupidorfragile, when no two words could be less applicable to her as a person.

I’d fucked up by taking the path that I did, and I needed to at least apologize, if not make it right.

Picking up my phone, I tried to call her, but after it rang and rang and rang, there was no answer. She was probably pissed off at me and had no intention of answering, so I stood up from my desk and walked out of my office, planning to go and find her so we could talk this out.

Just as I was walking out of my office and locking my doors behind me, one of the soldiers that I had guarding the containment unit came running in.

“It’s your shift to watch the prisoner. What are you doing here?” I growled.

He held up his hands. “I’m sorry, Boss, but I didn’t wanna lose my life.”

“What do you mean?”

“Mrs. Costello came to the containment unit with a gun. Pointed it right at me and told me to let her in. I didn’t wanna die.” He frowned. “She’s always been so nice to me. I never saw her doing something like that.”

“Katya, my wife, held a gun on you?” I asked. “Is she there now?”

“Yes.”

“What is she doing?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. I battled with whether or not to come and tell you and then I finally came here. I didn’t want youorher to kill me.”

“Fuck.”

I bolted out of my office and started down the path that led to the containment unit. The door was still open, so I ran in and beelined it towards Lyn’s cell, but I didn’t see anyone in the hallway outside. I slowed down to a stop and looked around, wondering if Katya had already left. Just inside the containment unit was a small security room with screens that showed feeds of all the prisoner’s cells. When I looked into the one that Lyn was in, my stomach clenched up. Lyn was inside, but so was Katya. She was holding a gun towards Lyn, but in spite of that the two were talking.

And Lyn didn’t seem to have the same atmosphere about her that she had before.

As quietly as I could, I closed the security room door, then I flipped the switch that would allow me to listen in on what was going on in the room.

“And so that isn’t even actually your family? The Covilles?” Katya asked.

“No.” Lyn’s tone was totally different from what it had been. Not young and untouched anymore, but much grittier. “I figured you might call them up to verify my story, and if they swore they only had one kid, you’d assume I was telling the truth.”

Lyn lied? She wasn’t who she said she was?

“So what exactlywasthe plan?” Katya asked. “Obviously Antonio was smart enough to know that we were going to welcome you into our home with open arms.”

“No, of course not,” she said. “He looked me in my two eyes and told me I’d be locked up, probably tortured. Said that if Vincent was anything like his father, I’d be down three fingers before the end of my first week here.”My dad? This man knew my dad?“In truth, you’ve got the pretty face, the Russian accent. I think Antonio legitimately thought that you were a mail-order bride or something. Vincent likes pretty things, and you need a visa-type arrangement. I was shocked as shit when I realized the two of you are actually in love.”

“So you were supposed to fuck with our relationship?” Katya said. “That’s why you kept planting all those seeds of doubt. making the comments to try and seduce Vincent. Your job was to eventually get one of us to slip up and then, what, kill us?”

“Oh no. Antonio was very honest about one thing, hewillhave you as his Queen,” Lyn explained. “And if he didn’t have the joy of putting a bullet in Vincent’s head himself, he’d makemyhead roll. He actually didn’t even care if I tried to seduce Vincent or not, the whole plan was just to get you to leave him, however I accomplished it. Once you didn’t have him as a benefactor anymore, you’d need a new one, and he’s waiting on standby to step in.”

“But then why the attack on our guy today?”

Lyn shrugged. “Beats me. Got impatient? I’m guessing you haven’t left the estate much?”

“No,” Katya said. “Not at all.”

“There you go. He’s been keeping an eye on the place, waiting for the day when he sees that you’ve packed your bags and are on the way out. Too much time has passed I guess, so he decided to do something to shake you guys up.” Then she frowned at Katya. “But you know, I’ve learned something in the time that I’ve been here, and it’s something that’s made me come to hate you even more than I did that day that Ant told me I was being replaced.”

“Katya, you need to shoot her,” I grumbled out loud.

Lyn started taking steps towards Katya and she stabbed the gun at her. “Don’t move!”