Nikita

Qiao stared blankly at the woman in front of him. Maybe the seat she was sitting on was making her think this was a comfort zone. Perhaps the room itself, being as lovely as it was, was making her believe that all of this was a joke to him and her.

There were so many indicators in here, and it took all the willpower in Qiao Xi not to make her sit on the cold floor, but that was still an option if she still insisted on being a royal bitch.

He had no time to play with the woman, and yet she seemed to think that was the whole point of this.

Maybe Qiao needed to improvise.

"You don't know what I think," Qiao said to Samantha, a bright smile on his face like he had just won a fuċkɨnġ jackpot, and that made the woman uneasy.

Even though she never knew Qiao on a personal level, she knew he was powerful enough to take her life harder than it already was, but what was the catch? What was he willing to part with to get his answers?

He wasn't supposed to be smiling here, and he wasn't supposed to be relaxed and with his gun on the table and so close to Samantha. The woman could easily take the gun and fire at him, and Qiao knew that.

Maybe that was why he unloaded the gun and then reloaded it, putting it right in front of Samantha, like he was admiring her to take the gun and make him free her. Samantha, on the other hand, wasn't sure what to expect.

What was going on through the officer's mind anyway?

"Oh, but I think I do. Anyway, what are you planning on doing with me?" Samantha asked, trying to make it seem like she wasn't already uneasy about Qiao.

What if he gave her the gun to kill herself or make everything her fault?

What if he was just as crazy as the officers who had been to wars and came back home with PTSD?

What if?

"Handing you over to Nikita is all," Qiao said like he was talking about the walls in the room.

It was so casual that it wasn't even meant to be a threat, but if Samantha knew Nikita as Qiao knew him, then she would know that having a face-to-face with Nikita would be the worst punishment for anyone who had dared to go against Nikita.

And as Qiao had expected, Samantha freaked out for the first time since their conversation began. It turns out even the strongest and craziest of them all knew when to tone down their madness. Then again, why would she be in fear of the doctor whose only passion was treating patients?

Or maybe she was scared that Nikita would defibrillate all the senses out of her; damn, that would be an exciting sight, but Samantha knew otherwise. It was almost like something the people who were closest to Nikita knew. 

"You can't do that," Samantha said to Qiao, who just let out a laugh. What the hell did she think he would do with her anyway? Sing fuċkɨnġ Christmas carols?

That was the last thing she could have expected, but whatever she was afraid of, or whatever reason it was that made her scared of Nikita Pavleko, that was the very thing that most people really need to be scared of.

Then again, he was a good doctor, and surely nothing was wrong with that, right? Qiao looked at the woman again, wondering what was stopping her from using the gun in front of her. They were in a room that had no CCTV cameras.

She could just shoot Qiao and then shoot herself and lie than Qiao took the first shot, and that's he was just defending herself, but it seemed like the woman had more brain cells, most of which had stopped functioning at the mention of Nikita.

"Why?" Qiao mused before adding, "You have a gun in front of you, and it's fuċkɨnġ loaded. You can end this once and for all. You can make a bargain with me and get yourself out. You can kill me then pretend it was me. You have so many options in front of you, but my best friend intimidates you more than the guy you could use on me? Damn." 

"Because you're an officer of the law, and officers don't hand people who…people who are in their custody," Samantha argued hopelessly.

She knew her argument was bullshit and knew there was no coming out of this alive if she ever raised a finger on Qiao Xi. she knew using the people Nikita loved against him was a stupid war that no one would ever win.

Just because they were, his favorite people didn't mean they were weak or unprotected. Slinging his family that Saturday had made Nikita smarter, and it wasn't something that a grieving person would do, but Mykolajki Pavlenko didn't believe in grieving.

He was ready to postpone it for as long as he could. This is why he had ȧssigned his people to watch out for the people he cared about. Every move, every step, every outing his favorite people went to, and he had men and women watching over them.

Most of them were undercover, and some had even gotten closer to Nikita's favorite people. A scratch on them meant death for the perpetrator, and Samantha knew that so well, and she knew what was waiting for her if she was so tired shit with Qiao.

"But you're not in custody yet, Samantha, that's the thing y'know, besides, you're here because of the commotion you created earlier. Nikita will walk through those doors any time and I would love to know what kind of explanation you will give to him, Lyne Volkov," Qiao said to Samantha, his creepy-ass smile still lingering.

He even pushed the gun towards Samantha as if telling her she could take the shot, but the woman was too absorbed in the possible things Nikita Pavlenko would do to her if she dared to try anything with her best friend.

Qiao was right, though, and they were just holding Samantha for a while. If everything were resolved by morning, she would officially be handed to the authorities, though even she knew that she wouldn't ever end up at the police station.

There were higher chances of the prisoner transport vehicle suddenly disappearing into thin air and no one looking for it or her, and those were greater chances than the fact that the virus was active.. That much Samantha had known or as she was known by her government name, Lyne Volkov.