Page 42 of Fergus
“Never mind.” Thea waved a dismissive hand when she saw how Fergus’s expression had darkened at the reaction of the other two men.
Her only intention had been to tease Fergus out of his annoyance, not involve the other two men in what was really a private conversation.
“Fergus, you’re missing the point,” she complained when he continued to glare at his brother and Nikolai for daring to comment on the subject of the bottom he coveted.
“Which is?”
“Martin was never my lover.”
It took a second or two, but then the scowl disappeared from Fergus’s brow and his shoulders relaxed. “Right. Good. Okay.” He nodded his satisfaction with that answer before turning to glare at Linus and Nikolai. “But I advise the two of you to stop looking at my woman’s backside!” He winced when Thea drew in a sharp breath. “I apologize for sounding like a Neanderthal, but that’s what you are to me now.”
“I still don’t understand, why would Martin do those things?” Thea quickly asked before either Linus or Nikolai could say something else to ignite Fergus’s temper. Something they were doing deliberately, Thea believed, from the wide grins she could see on their faces.
“I believe that is one of the questions you wish to ask him yourself,” Nikolai drawled before taking another sip of his coffee.
“I… Will your men…torture him to get those answers if I don’t talk to him?” It seemed a distinct possibility, considering she was living in a parallel universe where a high-ranking member of the Russian bratva was calmly sitting a few feet away, drinking the coffee she had just made.
Blond brows rose over Nikolai’s pale gray eyes. “I believe you have watched too many gangster movies, Miss Morgan.”
She glared. “That didn’t answer my question.”
“No, it did not.” He placed his empty coffee mug carefully down on the breakfast bar before those wolf’s eyes focused directly on her.
“Well?” she prompted again.
He shrugged. “If he does not give the answers you seek, then my men will use whatever methods they deem necessary to extract truthful information from the man who has been stalking you. The same man who also broke into your hotel suite in Paris and physically attacked you,” Nikolai reminded grimly.
Thea could hear the challenge in Nikolai’s voice, and while she didn’t approve of violence, she also couldn’t protest the way Nikolai protected the people he cared about. Apparently, because of her connection to Fergus,shewas now included in that number.
She also couldn’t fault his logic. Martinhadattacked her. Admittedly, she had only been knocked out for a few minutes, and the cut at the side of her head hadn’t needed stitches. But, as Martin had just left her lying unconscious on the floor, there was no way he could have known how serious that blow to the head was going to be.
Fergus was the one who had found her, protected her, and Nikolai wanted to do the same. Even if his methods were more…violent than Fergus’s.
Which meant she wasn’t about to challenge Nikolai on his methods of interrogation, or the retribution that followed.
“Although I believe I can already give you the answers you require and save you the trouble of ever seeing him again,” Nikolai continued evenly. “In my experience, a cowardly man like Martin Hayes would believe that scaring you before offering his shoulder to cry on was the surest and easiest way to persuade you to resume your relationship. No doubt with the intention of the two of you getting married, giving him full access to your finances as your husband.”
“Over my dead body!” Fergus growled.
Nikolai sent him an appreciative glance. “A commendable assertion, but I do not think that will be necessary.” He looked at Thea again. “You recently inherited fifty million pounds.”
It wasn’t a question but a statement, and Thea saw no reason to question how Nikolai knew that. Better to just accept that he did.
She nodded. “Martin only wanted to resume our relationship because he wanted access to the money my mother left me. So, you’re saying that when I refused, he started to stalk me because he thought I would turn to him for protection and he could achieve his end game that way?”
The Russian nodded. “A couple of hours with my men would confirm that explanation, but I believe so, yes.”
“What will happen if he admits to that being the case?”
“He will be issued a severe warning never to go near you again if, or when, he is released,” Nikolai corrected smoothly. “Hopefully, that will be a sufficient deterrent for him not to come anywhere near you ever again.”
“And if it isn’t?”
“Then he will suffer an even worse beating, followed by another, until the point has been driven home to him that he is not to be anywhere within your vicinity.”
Thea thought over what Nikolai had just said and knew, without talking to Martin, that this was exactly how events had unfolded.
“I don’t need to speak to him after all,” she told Nikolai.
