Interrogation Room
1253 Words
CHAPTER 2
Interrogation Room
(LILA'S POV)
The coldest rooms aren't made of concrete. They're made of hands you can't escape.
The room was freezing. And the cold was the kind that settled deep into your bones and stayed there. My wrist bit into the metal cuffs attached to the chair and a single light swayed above my head.
The door opened. And I looked up too fast. A wave of dizziness hit me almost immediately and that made me lowered my head. Two armed men walked into the room first. Then Lucien Moretti walked in.
The room changed the second he entered. Nobody spoke. Nobody dared to move carelessly. Even the guards straightened when he walked past them. And that terrified me more than the guns they held. Lucien removed his gloves and placed them on the table. His eyes finally lifted to me. Cold. Sharp. I broke the contact first. But one of the men grabbed my face roughly and turned it back up.
“Look at him when he's talking to you.” My heart beat slowed. Lucien didn't react. He didn't tell him to stop either. He just sat down across from me, calmly playing god. My throat tightened. “You already searched me.” I said quickly. “I don't have anything I swear.”
He didn't respond. He just looked. My voice came out smaller than I wanted.
“I was just a courier. That’s it. I don't know anything about stolen goods or mafias or whatever this whole s**t is.” He didn't say anything for the second time. And that made the silence annoyed me.
I shifted in my seat and the chain clinked. “Look, If you're going to kill me, just do it. Don't drag it out like I… like I'm something Important.”
His gaze finally shifted to my wrists. Before landing back on my eyes. Then he stood and moved a step closer and I instinctively stepped back. My back hit something hard. The wall.
“You don’t know what you're carrying.” He said finally. His voice wasn't loud. It didn’t need to be.
I let out a short, bitter laugh.
“That's the only true thing you’ve said since I met you.”
Then his eyes narrowed. Interest. I hated that. Because interest meant attention. And attention in my life never meant or did anything good to me.
“I don’t care what I was carrying,” I said quickly. “I didn't steal it. I didn’t plan anything. I was just trying to survive.” The word came out in a rush before I could stop it.
“Survival doesn’t excuse ignorance.” He said.
“Oh I'm sorry,” I snapped. “I didn't realize that I was supposed to study mafia politics before trying not to starve.”
“You were at the wrong place.”
I laughed again. Even though there was nothing funny.
“Being in the wrong place seems to be my full-time job.”
The door opened and a man stepped in. Whispered something to him. I didn't hear what they said. But I saw his expression shift again. When the man left, Silence swallowed the room. And I couldn’t take the silence anymore.
“Can I go now?” I asked my voice lower this time. “I told you everything I know.”
“You don't get to decide when this ends.”
“What does that even mean?”
He didn’t answer. Just reached into his coat and pulled out a small packet. The one that was found. Then he said, “You were carrying something men are willing to kill for.”
My breath seized.
“No,” I said instantly. “No, I wasn’t. I told you I didn’t know.
“You didn’t need to know,” he cut in. Lucien slid the packet toward me.
“Open it.”
“I don’t want to touch it.”
“Open it.”
“I swear I don’t know what’s inside.”
His expression didn't change. “Neither did the last man who lied to me.”
The cold spread down my spine. My fingers were shaking, when it reached for the seal. I opened the packet carefully.
Photographs of Men in suits fell onto the table. Transactions. Stacks of cash receipt. My brows lifted up. Other documents dropped.
Some were circled in red ink. Others were crossed and one face stood out. A politician.
My eyes widened.
“I don’t understand this,” I muttered.
Lucien watched my face. Like he was waiting for the exact second I slipped.
“You’ve never seen these names before?”
“No.”
“The accounts?”
“No.”
“The pictures?”
“I said no.” I swallowed, “I've never seen any of this.”
One of the guards grabbed the back of my chair.
“Careful.”
Sweat beaded my face. As I inhaled. “I’m telling the truth!”
“Truth doesn’t shake this much.”
“I’m cold!” I said it out loud. The guard's jaw tightened.
Lucien didn’t move for few seconds. Then he lifted two fingers. The guard released the chair immediately.
“You’re terrified.” He said and I hated how exposed that made me feel.
“You dragged me into a basement and handcuffed me to a chair,” I snapped before I could stop myself. “What reaction were you expecting?”
My voice echoed. And one of the guards muttered softly, “She’s got a death wish.”
Lucien stared. The corner of his mouth moved. It wasn’t a smile.
“My men think you’re pretending,” he said.
“What?”
“They think this act is calculated.”
“This isn’t an act.”
“Maybe.”
He stood. The movement made me tense immediately. Lucien walked around the table before stopping beside me.
He was close again. His fingers pressed my wrist near the cuffs. I gasped. He noticed it. Of course he did.
“You react like prey,” he said quietly.
I looked at his cold eyes.
“You interrogate people for a living,” I whispered. “What else am I supposed to react like?”
Silence stretched a bit.
“Most people beg by now.”
“I’m trying not to pass out.”
For the first time, his brows lifted. Like he hadn’t expected that answer. The room stayed quiet. Then one of the guards near the door spoke.
“Don.”
Lucien turned. The guard held a tablet, his jaw tensed.
“We ran her name.”
The air went cold. Even Lucien’s posture changed.
He took the tablet without a word. His eyes scanned the screen once. And for the first time since he entered the room. His expression tensed. It was enough to make fear crawl up my skin.
“What?” I whispered. But nobody answered.
Lucien lifted his gaze back. “How long,” he asked quietly, “have you been using the name Lila Hart?”
My pulse went cold. Because I realized I might not even know who they thought I was.
Lucien leaned forward, voice low enough that only I could hear.
“If you’re not Lila Hart, then who sent you to me?”
Before I could answer, the door slammed open.
“Don! Movement outside. They found us.”
Lucien’s eyes snapped back to mine.
“Don’t move.”
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