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A moment of silence stretched between us. If what Sophia was saying was true, then everything Leo told me was a lie. Sophia was not an informant. She was a woman on the run and therefore very likely didnotknow where Kusma was.
“What is your real name?”
“Aleks Petrova,” she said, her eyes narrowed, daring me to challenge her. “I am Kusma Petrova’s daughter.”
“Aleks Petrova is dead.”
“Yes, she is.”
I chewed on this for a minute, slowly putting the pieces together. I looked over at her. “You paid someone to make you a death certificate, didn’t you?”
“Exactly. My cousin’s name was Ana. We were close. One day, she and I had planned to do a girls’ day of shopping, lunch, that sort of thing. At the last minute, I canceled on her. She was killed in a horrible car accident that day, and I saw it as an opportunity. I paid an ally of mine to tell everyone I had been in the car with her, that I burned to death next to her, and then paid him to forge my death certificate. That’s when I became Sophia Banks. I left Russia that night.”
“So, you were born in Russia?”
“Yes.”
“Why don’t you have an accent?”
“I learned English very young and have spent the last three years getting rid of my accent. I’m never going back. I want to erase all traces of my past.”
“Who was your ally? The guy who helped you escape.”
“One of my dad’s minions who had a crush on me. I paid him ridiculously well to keep quiet, using money I’d stolen from my dad. It was risky, but I was willing to take that risk.” She looked away. “I believe Ana’s accident wasn’t an accident. I think I was targeted.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want to talk about that right now.”
“Aleks—”
“No. Don’t call me that. I’m not her anymore. I’m Sophia. Please call me Sophia.”
We came to a fork in the road, barely visible through the snow. I hung a right, taking us deeper into the dense Alaskan wilderness.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“Somewhere you can’t run.”
Somewhere I could decide, once and for all, if I could trust this woman.
27
Justin
We were quickly losing light. The blizzard-like conditions made it almost impossible to see the road ahead—not that there was much to see under the snow that had fallen over the last few hours.
It wasn’t just the impassible roads or the wind chill that I worried about, it was the cracking tree limbs I kept hearing in the distance. One big limb could immobilize the SUV, leaving us stranded without a working engine, or if the windows shattered, a barrier against the weather.
I was almost about to come up with a plan B when the GPS beeped from the console, alerting me that I’d arrived at my destination. It was a deserted old one-room cabin that I’d stumbled upon while searching for Sophia after she’d run from me. For some reason, I’d kept the coordinates in my phone, a whisper of intuition telling me I might need them at some point. I’m glad I listened.
Built of rock, concrete, and wood, the old cabin had been overtaken by the forest around it. Half the structure was underground, and the exposed half was consumed by vegetation, all the way up to the roof. A crooked stone chimney clung to the side. I assumed it was at least a hundred years old. Now, it was barely visible under the blanket of snow.
It was perfect.
Sophia stirred as the SUV bumped over the terrain. She blinked and rubbed her eyes with her fingertips. “How long have I been asleep?”
“Forty-five minutes.”
