An enemy will agree, but a friend will argue.—Russian Proverb
I HATED THAT I CALLED HIM in, almost as much as I hated the fact that I needed to ask for help.
Help had always been a weakness, as if I was down, bleeding out, and needed someone to put pressure on the wound in order to stay alive.
My blood heated at the thought, the mere, idea that I would need to call an Italian to aid me.
I glanced back at Maya as she slept in the bed.
I would do anything, anything for her. Legal. Illegal. There wasn’t a line I would not cross, a job I would not do. A life I would not take.
The phone rang once.
“Yes?” The voice clipped on one end.
“I need you.” Damn the words were out before I could stop them, my hand clenching the phone as if it was the only object in my existence and the pressure aided by my fingertips only helped persuade the voice on the other end in saying yes, in making sure I kept the woman I loved safe.
“Okay.”
A click. And the conversation ended. No persuading. No banter, nothing that would help me understand the situation further, just a simple okay.
I would have been a hell of a lot more at ease had he been argumentative.
I let out a sigh of frustration. I hadn’t intended on relying on anyone else. I didn’t trust people, but I did trust the Italians. And maybe that made me the worst betrayer of them all… the fact that I so easily trusted outside of the Russians, the family my father bet his very life on.
With a sigh I turned away from Maya as she slept and dialed Jac’s number.
“Hello?” She picked up right away.
“Jac,” I said relieved. “How are you?”
She was silent and then. “I haven’t heard from you all day, will you be in tonight?”
I glanced nervously at Maya. “Of course, why not?”
“Well, a lot of things have been changing lately.”
I rolled my eyes. “Jac, I will always do my research. You know this.”
“Do I?”
A challenge. “Yes. You do.”
“Fine.” She sighed heavily. “I’ll see you tonight at the regular time.”
“Yes,” I hissed. “And maybe, during that time, you can help me locate the missing girl?”
“Missing girl?”
“The one you led into the clinic the other night? The one who we can’t find? That girl.”
“What’s one girl, Nik?”
“What is one girl, Jac?”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m not saying anything, merely asking… You led her in, did you see where she ran off to?”
The phone went deathly still as if Jac was holding her breath. “I don’t like being attacked by my own family, my own grandson.”
“Is that what this feels like? I’m asking a question. That’s all.”
Jac cursed. “You’re accusing me. There’s a difference, think I can’t tell the tone you’re using? The girl ran off, just like I told you. If you paid more attention to your own damn records, you’d know that. Now. Can I please get back to work? The real work we’re supposed to be doing? As a family?” I didn’t miss how she said that last part with venom, how she spat the word, disgusted with having to even discuss it with me in the first place.
“Yes.” I nodded even though she couldn’t see me. “Yes, get back to work.”
The phone line went dead.
Maya made a small noise in her sleep. I’d exhausted her, so relieved that I could be with her that I hadn’t given her a break at all, just taken my pleasure, offered her hers, and gone on with life.
The clock chimed three in the afternoon.
Our time would be up soon.
Our number called.
And as if her father could read my mind, a text sounded on my phone.
Petrov: Tsk, Tsk, Tsk good doctor. Have your hand in the cookie jar, do you? Meet me tonight at Pier 49, 10:00. Being late, means her life… I’ll find her, I always find them. I always succeed.
With a curse I tossed my phone onto the bed and ran my hands through my hair.
Maya awoke and squinted up at me. “Is everything okay?”
“Of course,” I lied smoothly. “Just… anxious to lie next to you, to hold you in my arms. Can I do that?”
“Yes...” She yawned, stretched, then opened her arms. “Are you sure it’s okay to take today off?”
“Yes,” I snapped unintentionally. “Bosses orders, he’s an ass after all.”
She reached around and pinched my ass. “Yes, yes he is… better pull the wool over his eyes while we can.”
I kissed her hot mouth. “Yes.” I growled. “While we can.”
I wished moments like that could last forever.
But my wish was in vain.
I couldn’t be reborn, and ask to be part of a different family, ask to be something other than what I was.
I cringed, just thinking about what Jac was doing.
About what she’d been doing.
Maya moaned. “Make love to me again.”
“Okay,” I whispered against her lips. “Okay.” I prayed she’d never find out the other half, why I agreed to Petrov in the first place, why I still allowed myself to be controlled.
It isn’t money that makes the world go round.
It’s knowledge.
And when it came to me?
He had all he needed to know.
Not just half of it.
All of it.