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That’s when I see it.
The small orbs dance under the lights in the same way hundreds of ballet dancers have spun in this place over the years. There’s no doubt in my mind. I know exactly what I’m looking at.
It’s prayer beads.
The same ones that I saw last night!
Blood suddenly rings in my ears; it drowns out Arsen as he continues to speak. “It’s awful that you have such a low opinion of me. Allow me to change that. After all, we’re going to be seeing a lot of each other as the details of the contract come together.”
He’s the one! He killed that man! I stumble slightly—I forgot to breathe. Arsen narrows his eyes, and I have an awful, unreasonable fear that he’s reading my mind.
Dropping his hand to his hip, my eyes follow his wrist down. He watches me do it. Shit … Does he recognize me from last night? I ran away as fast as I could …
He didn’t see my face … did he?
“Mr. Isakov is right, Galina,” Mom says. “Let’s keep the peace. This will work out for all of us, even if it doesn’t seem that way now. It’s a chance to have a fresh start in life. Please, malyshka.”
“Listen to your mother, ptichka,” he agrees with a sideways smirk. “Don’t let your own selfish wants stop you from giving your mother the chance that she deserves.”
“It doesn’t matter what I want,” I whisper. “Mom already agreed to the deal.”
“I’m aware,” he notes, “but I prefer everyone to go away happy from a deal. I don’t like misgivings; they complicate things. And I prefer that at the end of every deal, I walk away with the opposing party as friends. And in my experience, the road to intimate friendship begins with a drink.”
Is … is he asking me out? The balls on this guy! But at the same time, his words intrigue me. He wants to convince me that the deal is good. Which means there’s still a chance I can convince him that it’s bad.
But can I accept this? I’m sure he’s the guy who I saw kill a man last night. I turn to look at my mother, and she implores me silently with her eyes.
She has no idea who this man is … or how dangerous he might be.
I’m being paranoid. He doesn’t know I was there last night. He can’t know; he’d have said something by now.
If nothing else, maybe a drink will at least get me closer to the truth of who he is. And if I manage to convince him to back out of the deal, so much the better.
So, I give a curt nod. “Fine. Drinks under the pretense of business, that’s all.”
“I wasn’t aware that this was anything else other than business,” he teases. “Or is there something else you think I want from you, ptichka?”
His smile makes him more handsome, and the sight of it causes my body to betray me. A new spark of heat drips from my belly and settles in my inner thighs. It’s unfair for a man this awful to be this good-looking. It’s a wicked joke; it has to be.
“Where do you want to meet?”
Arsen gently rakes his teeth against his lower lip, almost as if he’s hinting at how he’d use those teeth on me. But whatever arousal he’s growing in my core evaporates when he speaks.
“Tsar’s Lounge.” His smile shifts, and the playful glint in his eyes is replaced with something else. “But we should go before it gets too dark. Terrible things are known to happen around there after midnight near the docks, especially to people who go poking around where they shouldn’t.”
He extends his hand to me. Realizing that I have no other choice, I take it. And at the shocking warmth of his grip, a surge of electricity dances its way along my arm and straight into my heart. His smile locks me into place, but there’s no warmth in his eyes.
Instead, there’s only something predatory and dangerous. His pupils widen slightly as our hands remain locked, and I see myself reflected in their infinite dark depths—like a gazelle on the savannah trapped in the gaze of a starving lion.
And that’s when I know I’m screwed.
4
GALINA
My steering wheel is damp from my clammy palms.
Breathe. Just breathe.
