Broken | Lucas North - Spooks/MI5 Story [Featured]

Chapter 15

“My role changes depending on what part of the game we’re in, kitten,” Mikhael replied.  “In the beginning, I may have been nothing more than a simple pawn to Arkady, to be ordered here or there.  But as the game progresses, my role changes.  It becomes more important.”

“How important?”

“I’m the only one that stands between you and Arkady.  That means, I’m the only one that stands between you and death.  You see, because of Sugar Horse, there’s a price on your head.”

Alexa frowned.  “That’s absurd,” she said.  “I can’t be that important to Arkady.  I know nothing.”

Mikhael’s lip curled.  “Oh yes, you do.  You see, Alexa, for a rich man’s daughter, you’re very smart.  You knew then when to keep your mouth shut, when to see nothing, or hear nothing.  You knew then what secrets men kept and what secrets they were willing to give up in a moment of weakness.”  Mikhael walked towards her and ran a finger down her cheek, tracing the outline of her neck, just where her neck joined her shoulder.  “And yes, you knew just how to make a man give up his deepest, darkest secrets.”

Alexa’s face reddened.  She looked away and Mikhael returned to his chair.  His fingers tingled, the desire for her growing inside him.  But first, they needed to talk.  She needed to know just what she was, not the innocent girl she thought she was.

“I did not send you to entertain just any man who came into the club,” Mikhael said.  “You passed on secrets to me, remember?  It was our agreement.”

Alexa said nothing.  

“You’re not quite as innocent as you claim to be.  Did your father know that, Alexa?” Mikhael continued. “Did he know that you passed on many of my government secrets to me?  Ones that you obtained during your sessions with those men?  It was my insurance in staying in business, even if the FSB was watching me carefully.  That only means that you could have passed them on to your government, too.  Or even to your spy lover.”

“I only did as you told me,” Alexa said.  “You promised me freedom.  What other choice did I have?”

“Plenty,” Mikhael replied.  “You had every reason to say no.  What I don’t understand is why you didn’t tell your father, or anyone else about what you learned during your stay in Russia.  Why you kept every secret you heard to yourself?  And believe me, you heard plenty of them.”

Alexa looked at him, frowning.  She was silent, not sure what to say.  Mikhael, she knew, was not lying.  He did send her to entertain them, men who fancied themselves spies for the FSB, who did nothing on the field but worked behind computers and equipment all day, yet learning so many secrets.  And when they arrived in Mikhael’s clubs, they had wanted nothing more than to impress the girls, make them believe they were who they weren’t, and during the process, divulge highly secret information to girls like Alexa who fed them with compliments, alcohol and drugs.  

Yet there were those who worked in the field, who were powerful men, capable of killing her in an instant.  Alexa had discovered that she had a skill in detecting just who they were, her senses sharper when she was around them, teaching her when to remain deaf and dumb, and when to rely on her instincts and step away.  

Yes, Mikhael was right.  She had learned her lessons well, though they were not gleaned from him at all.  But the simple answer to his question was that she had completely blocked everything she had heard in those sessions, the secrets men and women told her, the things she had seen.  She had simply locked them all away, never to be seen again.  She had done it just as she had forced herself to believe that Lucas, during his imprisonment in Russia, was dead.  She had never wanted to return to that place again.