CARRIE WANTED a conference call so I’d gone to the one place I knew I could be alone: the garden. I was sitting on the moss-covered tree trunk where Konstantin had found me and I’d found a new friend. Moments after I’d sat down, the biggest, fluffiest ginger cat I’d ever seen had emerged from the long grass like a miniature tiger. After just a few moments of cautiously nuzzling my hand, it had sprung into my lap. It was good cover: if a guard saw me mumbling from a distance, he’d assume I was talking to the cat. Plus, stroking it helped keep me calm and I needed that because the more I talked to my friends at the FBI, the more stressed I felt.

“Do you think you can ask Konstantin what the money was for?” asked Carrie in my earpiece.

I shook my head before I remembered she couldn’t see that. “No, that would make him suspicious. He doesn’t tell me anything. I was never meant to know what was in that box, I was just meant to hand it over.”

“We asked Christina,” said Calahan. “Unsurprisingly, she wouldn’t talk.”

That threw me for a second. Then it clicked that he was talking about the real Christina, the one in FBI custody. God, I’d started thinking of me as Christina.

“You’ll have to go digging,” said Carrie. “His laptop: there must be something in there.”

I froze and the cat scowled at me. I resumed my stroking. “The laptop’s impossible. It’s locked with his ring.” But it wasn’t just the risk that had made me tense.

Calahan spoke up. “I trust Hailey’s opinion. If she says it’s impossible, it is.”

Carrie went silent. I could feel her brooding on it: she didn’t want to put me in danger but…. “This is the best chance we’ve ever had,” she said at last. “Maybe the best chance we’ll ever have. Something big is going down. If we can find out what that money was for, find out when it’s happening, we can catch Konstantin in the act. If you can’t get into his laptop, you’ll have to get into his safe.”

This time, my whole body tensed. “The safe is impossible, too. He’s in and out of the study all the time, if he sees me in there….” I remembered how he’d snapped at me, when he’d caught me on the landing—

And how he’d grabbed hold of me, to stop me falling. The guilt in his eyes, the fear at nearly losing me.

I was terrified of getting caught. But more than that: some stubborn, stupid part of me didn’t want to betray him.

Carrie sighed. “Then we’re back to the laptop. You’ll just have to figure out a way to—”

“Christina?”

The cat felt me freeze and sprang off my lap. I jumped up and spun around to see Konstantin striding towards me. He was too far away to have heard anything but that didn’t stop my insides twisting with guilt.

“Where did that come from?” he asked, looking at the cat.

“I think he lives in the garden. He’s really friendly, look.” I squatted and reached out to the cat, who eyed me suspiciously, still annoyed at me for jumping up, and then began to nuzzle my hand. Every few seconds, though, it would break off and look up at Konstantin. “You’re scaring it,” I told him. “Come down here.”

Konstantin blinked, unsure if I was joking. Then he slowly squatted down next to me. He stared around, as if he’d never looked at the world from so low down, before. Then he looked at the cat, utterly bemused.

Fortunately, the cat knew what to do. It rubbed its furry cheek against his knuckles...and approved. It gave them a lick and started to rub against them in earnest. Konstantin stared at it….

I held my breath….

And the corners of his mouth twitched, just a little. It was almost as if he was remembering how to smile. For a second, he looked happy—free.

Then he turned and looked at me and…I don’t know what it was I was doing, I was just enjoying being there, doing something so normal and fun with him. But it triggered something in him. The heat flared in his eyes: that glittering, molten look I was getting to know so well.

He suddenly grabbed my wrist and stood, pulling me to my feet so fast I wobbled on my heels and had to cling onto his arm. “What?” I asked, looking up at him. I could feel myself reacting to his gaze, the heat of it melting me inside. “What?” I asked again, hearing my voice go tight with excitement.

He just shook his head and wouldn’t explain. He marched towards the house, eating up the distance in huge strides, and I think he would have dragged me along if I hadn’t hurried to keep up. When we reached the hallway, he pulled me close. His eyes were glazed with lust and his eyes tracked up and down my body. What is it? What did he suddenly see, out there?

He leaned in and put his lips to my ear. He almost breathed the words into me, the dark heat of them twisting around my mind and drawing tight, sending shockwaves down between my thighs. “Go upstairs and put on something….” He paused, considering, and took another look down the length of my body. “Put on something for me. Then come downstairs.”

And he glanced down, towards the dungeon.