Chapter Ten: What Irina Knows
"So did you snatch the brats?"
Irina Derevko frowned at the woman seated across from her. At times, she found Brooke Banning's brash attitude refreshing. Not when her comments were so laden with stupidity. Snatch the brats. Brooke ought to have known Irina would never do something so extreme. Except as a last resort.
"Of course not," Irina said crisply. "And I'll thank you not to refer to my daughter's children as brats. I'll also remind you that in not much more than a week's time, you'll be answering to Sydney, not me."
"If she doesn't take Jack Bristow's offer," Brooke said with a smirk.
Irina regarded Brooke with a disapproving frown. Of all of the employees Jack could have singled out as a contact, he'd had to choose her. Of course, his selection of her had hardly been an accident. He'd been able to pinpoint Brooke, force her into double agent hood with threats of arrest, only because she had been drunkenly blabbing too loudly, in a public place, about things she shouldn't have been talking about at all. None of Irina's other employees would have dreamed of doing anything so careless. Irina's first impulse would have been to simply eliminate Ms. Banning, except that she'd known she could find a way to use this new development to her advantage. She always did.
"You're delusional if you think that Sydney would dream of going to the CIA," Irina scoffed. "She's more afraid of me than she is of them." Irina wasn't sure if her organization was more powerful than the CIA. In fact, she was almost certain it wasn't. But her organization had only grown within the past ten years, and she believed it would only continue to do so, as long as she could keep Sydney and Michael under control. She had stopped by their house that day only to observe their behavior. Sydney, at least, had been terrified. She should have been, if she was even thinking about turning Irina in. Terrified for herself. Terrified for her children. Irina's two beautiful little pieces of insurance.
"Does it please you to know that your daughter is afraid of you?" Brooke asked, arching one eyebrow.
"It doesn't displease me," Irina responded. "Do you expect to meet with Jack again soon?"
"Monday," Brooke responded with a yawn. "He wants me to check out how Sydney acts, try to determine what she's going to do. I told him I'd be lucky if that bitch let me anywhere near her."
"I hope that you didn't refer to her as that bitch in his presence," Irina said with raised eyebrows. "I would ask that you not refer to her that way in mine."
Brooke let out a peal of laughter. "That's rich, Irina," she responded. "You don't like anyone to say anything bad about your precious Sydney, but you wouldn't hesitate to kill her if you thought she was going to betray you."
Irina offered her an icy smile. "I wouldn't kill her, Ms. Banning," she told Brooke. "I'd imprison her, put her through the worst kind of hell. Make sure she was alive to see her gorgeous children take my place at the throne."
Brooke raised her eyebrows, her pretty face a mixture of repulsion and admiration. Irina caught a lot of people looking at her that way. "And what would you do with her Michael?"
Irina's smile widened. "I'd let you play with him, darling."
Brooke smiled. Irina had known she'd like that answer. It hadn't been so long ago that Irina had asked Brooke to seduce the gorgeous Michael Vaughn. Ten years. Irina believed she would have been successful, too, if she hadn't tipped her hand too early. It had worked out better this way, though. Irina could control Michael much more easily as Sydney's devoted husband than she could have as her unfaithful boyfriend.
"I wouldn't mind playing with Michael," Brooke said. "Of course, I wouldn't mind playing with Jack Bristow, either."
Irina froze momentarily. Jack Bristow. Played so expertly by her over and over again. She would have almost felt sorry for him, if she didn't find him so pathetic.
"So," Brooke said, rising from her seat. "You want me to contact you after I talk to Bristow again?"
"Yes, darling," Irina said with a smile. "Actually, come see me before you meet with him."
Whether or not Sydney let Brooke near her on Monday, Irina would see that Jack learned what her decision would be.
See that he finally learned not to play with Irina Derevko.