AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sitting at the table, I wait for her to join me as the coffee percolates in the background. “Any plans for the day?” I ask.
“Take stock of the pantry, organize the spring collection of drapes, make sure that the girls scrub the first-floor bathrooms.” Ulyana ticks off the tasks with her fingers. “Rotate the wine bottles in the cellar.”
I’m overcome with a wave of unease. The wine cellar … Just mentioning that place makes me recall the weird behavior between Arsen and Mila. The pair of them were being suspicious, but I dropped the topic because of other pressing issues at the time.
Why do I always feel like they’re hiding ghastly things from me?
Because they probably are.
One is an assassin, and the other, the head of the Grachev Bratva. It would be weird if they weren’t doing something ghastly that they don’t want me to know about.
The coffeepot stops hissing. Ulyana rises and gathers two small porcelain cups. She sets one in front of me, and brings over a silver tin of cream with a white cup of crystallized sugar cubes. The cubes remind me of the big chunks of sugar that gave the muffins their crunchy coating. And just like that, I’m hungry all over again.
She smiles fondly at me while stirring sugar into the dark liquid in her own cup.
“And you, devushka? Any plans with Arsen today?” she asks lightly.
“I don’t know.” Just the mere mention of his name sends me tumbling backward into the unease I’ve been fighting to quell.
Hunching over my coffee, I swirl it absently. The scent is burning my nose. I don’t want it anymore. I have to know about Pyotr. I glance up from my cup. It’s a risk, but at this point, I’ll be eaten alive by anxiety if I don’t find out somehow.
“Ulyana … can I ask you about something?”
“You sound nervous, devushka.”
I shift in my chair. “It’s not an easy question to ask. It feels like prying.”
Her head tilts and her earrings sway. “You can ask me anything, Galina.”
I nod but don’t speak. Not right away. I draw the moment out by adding sugar and cream to my coffee as I gather my thoughts. Ulyana grabs a cup and does the same as she waits. It’s a big deal, what I’m about to ask. I’m dancing on an edge here, unsure if the nervousness I feel is because I’m about to fish for information I’m not supposed to know.
Or because I won’t like what I find.
I can’t just ask about Pyotr, not yet. I have to be cautious. “Kristina … um … did Yevgeniy have a reason for murdering her?”
Her hand stirring the coffee slows to a stop. “Because she was Arsen’s wife.”
“Right, but was there another reason?”
Sitting deeper in her chair, she takes a long sip of her coffee. The steam wafts around her face. “Why do you ask?”
Her sharp eyes catch every little twitch of my eyebrows and lips. My hands on the coffee cup slide to the table. She sees that too. Ulyana is too clever to be fooled like this. She can see right through me. If I leave without explaining, I’ll look more suspicious. What’s the harm in revealing some of the truth?
“I’ll tell you,” I reply. “If you promise to keep this a secret.”
Her lips purse. “A secret from Arsen, you mean.”
I nod. Who else can I keep secrets from?
Ulyana studies her nails for a while. I would count the seconds, but I’m distracted by making sure the cup doesn’t shake in my hands when I pick it back up. I take a small sip, but the coffee tastes far more bitter than I thought.
“All right,” she finally manages. “I’ll do this for you.”
Slumping from relief, I nearly spill my drink. “When I was with Yevgeniy, he told me that he killed Kristina as revenge. He wanted Arsen to know how it felt to lose a child … because she was pregnant.”
Ulyana stares at me without blinking. I let out a weak breath.
Now or never.
