The next morning, the cracked ceiling made me frown for a second until I remembered where we were. Then it all came back to me like cold lead dropping from above, pounding me down into the depths.
We’d bought some toiletries from the department store so we could scrape a wash. Breakfast came from a battered vending machine, normally only used by the hotel’s prostitutes between clients. I noticed all the gum was gone.
Luka passed me a scalding cup of instant coffee and offered me the choice of the last two chocolate bars. “That one has raisins,” he said, deciphering the unfamiliar brands for me. “That one is sickly, but I used to like it when I was a child.”
I took the raisin one and we sat on the end of the bed. It was an odd sight, watching a huge, tattooed arms dealer eating a candy bar. I wondered what Olaf was doing, at that moment.
“Do you think Olaf’s still at your dad’s house?”
Luka nodded bitterly. I imagined Olaf sitting at the huge dining table, tucking into an extravagant breakfast like a conquering king.
“It’s the staff I worry about,” muttered Luka. “I don’t care about the place, but the people….”
“The staff?” I asked.
He looked at me, pain in his eyes. His hands were tightening into fists. “The maids.”
I remembered what Olaf and his gang liked to do to women and my stomach turned over.
“Do you think he’ll move in?” I asked.
He nodded. “My father’s house is nicer than his place. That’s how it works. You take over and you take what you want. Trophies.”
“Like you with the German’s yacht.”
He nodded and then kicked a chair. “He’ll take the jet. Everything. Then he’ll build a fucking empire in the US based on our gun deal. First guns, then drugs. Then, when he owns the local police, his fucking rape clubs. We paved the road for him!”
Guilt knotted in my chest. This was all my fault: I’d sleepwalked into the middle of a war and helped the wrong side to win. I’d been so hot for Luka, I’d not seen the way I was being manipulated. I fell onto the bed on my back and stared at the ceiling. “There’s nothing we can do, is there?”
He shook his head sadly. “What I want to do is kill that bastard.”
For the first time, the idea of killing didn’t disgust me. Maybe that meant I’d finally been corrupted. Olaf Ralavich deserved to die.
“But he’s too well guarded,” said Luka. “And there’s only two of us. We’d have to get him alone.”
“So we just sit here and do nothing?” I asked bitterly.
He turned slightly and looked at me, then down at my legs. Flopping down on my back had made the short hem of my dress ride up. “We don’t have to do nothing,” he growled.
I had to love him for that, for still being his brutish, horny self even when everything was lost. And God knows I’d happily tear his clothes off and make enough noise to piss off the couple next door again, but—
Something was scratching at the back of my mind. Two things he’d said that, in combination....
He leaned down to kiss me, but I put a hand on his chest to stop him. His eyes clouded with lust. “Are we still playing that game?” he asked. “Want me to interrogate you?”
Just those five words, combined with his accent, were enough to turn my insides to liquid heat. But I shook my head and sat up. “Wait,” I said. I was sifting through my mind like a gold panner, trying to find the few tiny gold flakes and crush them together. “He’ll take the jet?” I asked slowly.
Luka nodded. “It’s my prize possession. Everybody knows that.”
I thought of the jet and its luxurious leather seats. The smiling pilot—
That was it. That was the other thing that had sparked something when I’d heard it—when Luka had said he worried about Vasiliy’s staff. He cared about the people under him. I remembered how the jet’s crew had responded to him. “They’re loyal to you, aren’t they? The pilot and co-pilot?”
He looked puzzled. “Yes. But once Olaf arrives and tells them he’s taken over, they’ll have no choice.”
“But if you contacted them...maybe they could help us?” I grabbed Luka’s arm. “Maybe they could help us get Olaf alone?”
He blinked at me twice. Then he suddenly kissed me, wrapping me up in his arms and pulling me against his chest. “I love you, Arianna Scott,” he said.
And then we just stared at each other. It was the first time he’d said it. My eyes searched his and the flame within those clear blue pools of ice was burning bright, now. I knew he meant it.
I kissed him, slow and deep. We explored each other as if it was our first time. If we’d met without all the baggage, in some other universe, this is the point we would have reached—all sins forgiven, all defenses down. His warmth was soaking into me through every place we touched, from my lips to my groin, and I felt the ice inside me shudder and finally explode. Underneath, the parts of me I’d thought were lost forever started to glow and swell, alive again. It felt like we’d found our way onto the path we were always meant to be on. And it was the best feeling in the world.
When we finally broke the kiss, he held my head between his hands and just looked at me, letting me know that this was it, that we’d be together forever, now. If we survived.
He pulled out his cell phone and started the app that located the jet. “Good. They haven’t disabled my account, yet. I can still check—Yes.” He smiled. “There’s a trip scheduled. From my usual airfield to New York.” He showed me the screen. Six passengers were listed. Four of the names I didn’t recognize—bodyguards, presumably. But two of them I did. Olaf and Adam.
“If we could get Adam,” I said, “And some evidence, maybe his laptop...I might be able to prove to my people that he was a traitor.”
“Everything we need will be on that plane,” said Luka. “They’re leaving in two hours. Let’s go.”