“You think I’ll track down your brothers and …” I wait, curious about what assumptions she’s made.
“I don’t know!” she snaps. “I’m not on their side, obviously, and they were never on mine, but they’re still family.” She bites her bottom lip. “You know?”
I do know.
And I’m far more conflicted than Carina because my family and I are on the same side. I might disagree with some of their decisions, but there’s never been a question of where my loyalties lie.
“I have no interest in your brothers, Carina. Lions do not hunt house cats.”
She rolls her eyes rather than looking relieved. “That was rude.”
I’m fully grinning now. “You are offended your family is not an important enemy?”
“They were important enough for you to stake out a Paris theater.”
She holds my gaze, watching me sober.
“Or do you get sent on a lot of trivial errands to track down missing women?”
“Careful,” I drawl.
Carina relaxes back in her chair, propping her feet on one of the empty ones. “Or what?”
I stand. “Eat something. I have to make a phone call.”
I’ve only made it two steps to the door when she speaks again. “What are you really doing here, Lev? Just … tell me. Please.”
I pause. Blow out a long breath. Glance back at her.
She was chewing her bottom lip, which she stops when our eyes meet. Hers are wide. Worried and wary and wondering.
I don’t want her to matter.
I don’t know if pretending she doesn’t is an option any longer. If Igor is already losing interest, like Misha said, I could have talked my father out of this to begin with. I would have if I hadn’t seen that photo on his computer. I didn’t fly to France to track down a missing woman; I’m here for her.
“Twelve years.”
I turn away and continue walking without waiting for her reaction.
Carina doesn’t call after me again.
I turn my phone back on as I walk away from the house, closer toward the gardens that lead to a pond. Call my father back.
“Anything?” Igor asks immediately.
“No. Andrea share anything new?”
“They are still looking too. They’ve sent more men, he said.”
I frown.Moremen?
“I will keep looking,” I say. “She can’t hide forever.”
“Only until Thursday. I need you back here.”
“Fine,” I say, then hang up.
And release a string of swears that startles a nearby flock of birds into flight.
