Chapter 5

Anastasia:

“You’re back early” Elijah said opening the door for me “care to come in?”

I nodded and walked inside. Elijah closed the door after me and guided me to an office where Yaroslav was sitting. He already knew that I arrived having been told by his security men which were by the door. He gave them the approval to let me in before they opened the door for me.

“I see your friend decided not to show up” he stated.

“He’s no longer taking care of the case. It’s you and me on this one” I said pointing at the two of us. Yaroslav nodded at me and I returned the favor before taking a seat on the chair in front of the desk which I assumed was Elijah’s.

“Drink?” Elijah asked motioning to the bottle of whiskey which was on the bar table. Yaroslav nodded as Elijah poured him a glass and the man waited for my response before pouring at third glass.

“At eleven in the morning?”

“There’s no specific time to drinking” Elijah answered.

“No, thank you” I said straightening. I knew that being here on my own was a risk that no normal woman would be taking, but then again; I wasn’t the exact normal girl that you would find out in the street. The number of times that I’ve risked my life until now have almost gotten me killed time and time, but I couldn’t bring myself to care enough to stop.

“So, what’s your plan, malyshka? You’ve been taking care of this case for a while now; I would assume that you would at least have a solid plan on how you would be handling everything” Elijah asked taking a sip of his drink. He sat on his chair in front of me, waiting for me to give them what I had.

“Well, for starters, we need to find out who is behind all this, and to do so; I need to know whether or not you found out anything about Alexander’s enemies” I said taking out a file and handing it to him “this is all the information I had on him. I had to sneak you a copy, and before you ask why, it’s because I have no one to reply on in this case except you”

Elijah started reading through the file. If anyone found out that I took a copy and brought it here; not only would I lose my job, but I would be losing my license to ever be one, I could be sued, and even put in jail. However, I also knew that I needed valid information to give him to have him actually agree to work with me.

“Need I ask why Blake decided to stop working on the case with you?” Elijah asked putting the file down “it seems like the two of you have worked on it for a while, why would he just quit?”

“He gave me a choice, either him or you, judging by the circumstances of the fact that you would be taking care if it whether or not I agreed to have you with me on it; I chose to be smart to choose you” I said sadly. It saddened me that Blake chose to go with the FBI to help them. The man was going to give them all the information that we’ve been working on for months now. I have been against giving them anything as for them not to have the advantage of it, but now Blake was going to take it as a competition.

“You made a smart choice” Elijah said standing up. He nodded at to follow him. I got up from the chair and followed Elijah toward the door as he opened it for me. He nodded at Yaroslav before closing the door, leaving him in the office “I assume that we won’t be working at the cop station”

“And I’m guessing that you would suggest here?”

“Yes, I believe that you’re well aware that I don’t trust you”

“It’s not like I trust you either, Elijah” I said raising an eyebrow at him. I crossed my arms over my chest and he nodded opening one of the doors. I entered the room which he guided me to. He opened the light in the room and my eyes widened when I saw the office.

“We don’t need to trust one another to work with one another, but we could compensate. This is where we would be working; I had it set for you last night, if there’s anything that you need, let me know” Elijah said showing me around. He opened a closet which had a library, the computer was already set and plugged, and there was a huge round table in the middle of the room. A white board was in front of the desk, and a few markers were there too.

“You set all this last night when you weren’t even sure whether or not we would working together? Bloody hell, we only discussed working together today, nothing was sure yesterday” I asked looking around the room.

“I knew that you would be agreeing to work with me, I expected your friend to be with you. But seeing as you came alone, dealing with you would be a lot easier” Elijah said handing me a key “this place would be your office, one key copy would be with me and the other with you. You’re more than welcome to come at any time, and I’ll let the men know to allow your car in. But we have rules”

“Excuse you, I’m the cop here” I said putting the key on the round table.

“This is still my house and considering the fact that you would be working with me. Your cop card would not be applying” Elijah’s brown eyes didn’t leave my own as we spoke, and I would have had to lie if I said that I didn’t feel captivated by just looking at him “first rule, everyone in the house is respected. You won’t go around judging any of them. Second, you’re not a cop here, we would be working together, and I don’t expect anything you see or hear to be reported to the station, and believe me; I would know if that happens”

“I need to report to my deputy when we find anything…”

“The case is a different subject and we’re still getting there too. I mean, you’ll be sitting on our table, you would be eating and drinking with us, you can’t expect us to eat while you just watch. You’ll be listening to our conversations, I don’t even mind you interacting with them. You can even become their friends; they could trust you and I don’t expect you to go on ahead backstabbing them” Elijah’s voice hardened “and believe me; the price of that would only be your life. I don’t forgive or forget when it comes to my family”

“I don’t backstab those who trust me, Elijah” I said honestly. I was backstabbed myself, and I knew how it felt to be betrayed by the one you trusted.

“You’re backstabbing your friend by being here…”

“That’s a complete different case, and he knows that I’m here. He made his choice as not to come with me” I snapped glaring at him. He didn’t even know what happened and he was going on with assumptions.

“Needless to say, I don’t expect the same behavior with me” I frowned in confusion, waiting for Elijah to go on “we work on this case together, with whatever outcome; we’re in it together. We would be traveling, fighting, even risking our lives, but it would be together. The second you think of betraying that…”

“You don’t need to put on another threat, I already get the point” I said raising my own hand as to count the three conditions that I had “I agree with your terms, but I have my own conditions too”

“And they are?” Elijah asked looking at my hand.

“We work on this together means that no lies and no secrets. Whatever you may find on the case; I want you to tell me and vice versa. Okay, I will not play cop on you and needless to say, I won’t care about your businesses as long as they don’t interfere with what we’re doing, but you will not go on trying to get information from me about anything that concerns my job…”

“Do you really believe that I would need to ask for any information I want anything?”

“I’m being serious, Elijah” I said lowering my hand.

“As am I, Anastasia” Elijah said locking his eyes with my own “is there anything else that you’d like to add?”

“Just as I won’t backstab you, I expect that to be mutual”

Elijah extended his hand as to shake my own, I smiled and returned the favor, shaking his hand “don’t worry, Ms. Sangster, I don’t backstab those who I want to consider friends”

“Don’t mistake us working together with us being friends, Mr. Volkov”