"Andrei! What did they say, Olya?" I took the phone back from Jade, ignoring the urge to smile at their sudden lighthearted conversation. Instead, I pulled Jade into me, pressing her into my chest.
I just wanted to have her close, as if that would quiet the unease brewing inside me.
"Nothing." Olga sighed. "They took him to the fifty-fourth precinct but refused to tell me why he was arrested. I'm going there in a little bit, maybe I can get more details. Jade? It's up to you now."
Jade nodded in the silence between us while I ended the call and pulled her in closer. My mind was on fire. There were options, though, I reassured myself. There was no way for Moretti to find us tonight. We could hop on a plane now, go to Moscow—
“What’s the nail in the coffin?” I asked, remembering what Jade said. Jade pulled away quickly, averting her eyes andpacing once more. I waited for her to tell me, but it was like she didn’t want to. “What? You're nervous to tell me?"
"A bit.” She shrugged. “It’s unorthodox, but I think…I think it’ll really work.”
Invested in this—inher,I gave Jade my full attention and sat down on the one chair, my jeans gluing to it immediately.
“We’ve destroyed a lot of evidence.” She spoke with renewed energy, igniting my curiosity. “Whatever they’re planning to fake on you guys won’t hold up in court, but the problem is—my father doesn’t care. He willliethrough his teeth to the judge, but…he won’t be able to lie through this. He won’t be able tolive this down.” Jade glanced at me, still not telling me her idea. "I mean, it has to work—ithasto. He won’t show his face again. At work oranywhereafter this.”
"What is it?" I asked again, halting her mid-step, and she turned to me, twisting her fingers in discomfort. She bit her lip one last time and then—
“We make another video. Of us having sex. And we release it out there.”
I blinked at her, confident that I heard her wrong.
“Release…it?Where?” I asked, furiously trying to figure out the logistics of what she’d said.
“This is not ideal,” Jade added seriously, “and I know you probably don’t want to do it. I mean, I’m suggesting makingporntogether—I get it, it’s embarrassing, but it’ll be a thousand times more embarrassing forhimand—” Jade spoke in one breath, visibly nervous at this proposition. “It will ruin him. It willcrushhim. He’s always so straight-laced! Everyone thinks he isthelaw,so how did he raise a daughter like that?! A daughter who—"
“Malyshka,” I interrupted her mid-spiral, “let’s do it. I don’t think it’s embarrassing. If you’re okay doing it, so am I.”
Jade halted and glanced my way, a bit of relief showing on her face. “Really? You really want to do it?”
I pulled her onto my lap, catching the worry in her eyes. “Do I want to have sex with you? Yes. Always. Literallyallthe time.” Jade chuckled and sighed at my words. “But doyouwant to do this?We can just leave. Right now. We can drive to the nearest airport and—”
“We can’t. If they issued a warrant for your arrest, we can’t get on a plane,” Jade said, knocking reality into my head. “Not only that—it’s a federal warrant. They’re looking for you all over the country.”
A notice for my arrest. I never thought I’d hear that.Never. I had been so self-assured and cocky throughout my life that I wascertainI’d never be caught. Never be trapped.
“There are other ways to leave the country besides a commercial flight. I can make one call, and we can be on a private jet in two hours,” I assured her, sliding my hand up her thigh.
“But then we’ll just be on the run. This will never end, and I want it toend.I want him to never have power over me again. He hasnothingon you, Alex!” Jade spoke with such passion. “But he just wants this! We can’t let him wi—Ican’t let him win!”
“Okay.” I nodded, ignoring the excitement within me. “What do you have in mind?”
Jade sighed again and leaned against my chest. “No one knows who you are except the cops and our whole team, so maybe we just show half your face? We allude to it being you?”
I held her close to me, listening to this wonderful story. “Mm-hmm. And you? Your face?”
“Yeah, I’ll have to show my face. I’ll have to show…all of me.” Jade sat up and wrapped her arms around my neck. “And I’ve thought about what you’ll have to say.”
"What do I have to say?" I whispered, wanting to remember this illicit conversation until the end of my days.
Jade looked me over leisurely, pressing her lips to mine. “You’ll have to be my daddy for the night. And you’ll have to call me a slut. Or whore. Whichever you prefer, I guess.” Another peck on my lips sent my mind into freefall.
This was reckless. Dangerous. Exposing her way more than me, and yet, this was also genius.
"Do you...know the connotation of the worddaddy?" I posed the question as innocently as I could. I could have never connected that word and her existing together in the same world.
She furrowed her eyebrows and responded without hesitation. "Of course. The diminutive of the word dad or an affectionate way to address a romantic partner, especially when he's older. Like you,” she explained as if she was a human thesaurus. "It's perfect. He’ll have a fucking heart attack if he hears his little girl call someone that.”
Jade’s eyes sparkled with something dark. Something I hadn’t seen before.
