“Antonia, you haven’t let anyone down. You can’t do this anymore on your own,” he said softly sweeping his hand down her blonde hair lying on her shoulders. “Now, I am going to put you back to bed and get you some tea and food. Then you are going to tell me everything that happened in The Hole with the girls and I am going to help you identify the man you saw preaching to the men in the refugee camp and radicalizing them.”
She lifted her head up a little way from his shoulder and nodded. She gave a small sniff and allowed the Russian agent to slip his arm underneath her legs and lift her up into his arms. She clung to him like a child as he carried her back to the bed and carefully lowered her back down on it, gently tucking the covers around her. Antonia grimaced as she laid her head back on the pillows and grimaced as she wriggled around trying to get comfortable on her sore backside. She dipped her hand underneath the covers and rubbed it making him smile.
He leaned over her and stroked his fingers across her damp cheek to wipe away her tears before gently cupping the side of her face.
“Trust me. Allow me to do my job and protect you, Antonia. I will find the girls and keep you safe. I won’t let you down,” he promised.
“And if I don’t, will you spank me like a child again?” There was a hint of fear in her tone.
He continued his soothing caress and looked deep into her eyes so she would see the strength of his resolve even though they captivated him and held him prisoner.
“If I have to.” His voice was a dark velvet caress. His words made her eyes widen and her pupils dilate before he added, “Somebody needs to tame and control your recklessness concerning your safety. Are you going to give me cause to?”
“I will try not to. But I can’t promise. I find it extremely hard to trust anyone, especially men.”
The challenge was there in her words. Her fight was returning.
He nodded wondering why she could not bring herself to have confidence in a man, but now was not the time. He had to prove he was the exception to the men she had encountered in her private and professional life.
Gabriel placed his thumb on her bottom lip and caressed it back and forth. He heard her become breathless with his intimate touch and felt triumphant.
“As long as you try. I will prove any faith you put in me to help you find the girls and bring Adalina to justice. You have my word.”
She turned her eyes away and he got the feeling she wasn’t convinced. He couldn’t help but smile. He would make her learn.
“What am I doing in Venice?” she asked.
“Adalina is hiding with her family here. We need you to help us find her and the girls who may still be here.”
Gabriel removed his thumb and moved away from the bed. He picked up his mobile from the arm of the chair and, using the number he had been given, rang for the doctor to come back in. He glanced back to make sure she wasn’t trying to get out of bed again. Hopefully, the spanking had done the trick and he had gotten through to her. Malinov was always true to his word. If she hadn’t given up he would have tied one of her wrists to the raised metal bars with his belt to keep her there. It wouldn’t be the first time he had done it to a woman who wouldn’t do as she was told when he was trying to protect her.
Twenty minutes later, Antonia was sitting up in bed and both Gabriel, Botelli and another male agent sat around her bed. The interview was being recorded.
“I went undercover in the refugee camp at the beginning of July and I stayed there for a month in total. It took me ages to clear it with Duncan Brown, the editor of The Oracle.”
Antonia raised her eyes to the ceiling with frustration and shook her head.
“He wasn’t very happy about me going in The Hole after the reports of rape and abuse to women. But I eventually won him over and persuaded him not to send one of the male journalists in my place and on my story.”
“Who was your source?” Botelli asked with the coldness of an automaton ignoring the tinge of anger in Antonia’s voice.
The journalist gave a sigh and tried to move on her side in bed to make herself more comfortable still feeling the hot burn from her bottom. She narrowed her eyes at the handsome Russian agent when she caught the twitch of a smile at the corners of his mouth.
Botelli lifted her wrist and glanced at her Rolex with irritation. Antonia gave her a haughty annoyed look in return.
“Julia Twain. She was one of the senior aid workers for International Refugee Crisis Management who have set up a lot of the refugee camps in Europe and the one in Marzello. I met her after I did a series on the plight of the refugees in the camp everyone calls ‘The Jungle’ in Calais France for YouTube. She approached me in Paris after watching the series and asked to talk to me about the camp at Marzello. We had a coffee at a café…”
“Did you video her interview?” Gabriel interrupted.
“No. I met her alone without my crew.”
“Date, time, place,” Botelli snapped.
“I think it was Wednesday no, Thursday the 20th June around 9:30 am, possibly 9:45 at La Petit Angel in Montmartre.”
Botelli spoke in Italian to the agent on her left. He stood quickly to leave the room.
“We will see if we can find some CCTV footage of your interview.”
Antonia’s eyes suddenly swelled with tears. But she kept them locked inside her eyes and her composure in check.
“Adalina Morelli told me
