A new passport, a ticket to somewhere far away, and a promise she won’t let Nero find me? “I can guarantee that what I want falls within your power.”
She assesses me for a long moment and then shifts her attention to the breakfast the waiter just delivered. We both take a few bites of our food. My eggs Benedict look decadently good, but Ican barely taste anything. If she says no, I’m not sure what I’ll do.
I’m worried about my own fate and I’m also worried about Nero’s. Now that I understand how precarious his position is, I don’t want to leave him alone here until I can be confident the Ferraros won’t retaliate against him.
“All right,” Vita says, pressing her napkin to her lips. “I’ll grant you your favor, under the condition that it’s nothing that will harm my family.”
Yes.Relief spreads through me. “Understood.”
“Then we have a deal.”
“If— Once I get Nero to agree to this, what comes next?”
“You’ll make contact with someone in two weeks. One of the pakhan’s five brigadiers, a man called Maksim Garin. His wife is a Russian-American socialite and has landed in New York well-equipped with connections. We will arrange an encounter while they’re out and about in society.”
“Two weeks? I thought you’d want to move more quickly.”
“We need to be patient. Let it appear as if Nero is at his breaking point.” She takes a measured sip of champagne. “And you’ll need to be fully prepared.”
“What does that mean?”
“You’re new to our world, darling. If you don’t want to end up as prey, you need to grow your own teeth.”
“I’m not as clueless as you think.” I wonder if Vita knows about my connection to the Iron Raptors. Just because I kept my distance from my father’s friends after he died doesn’t mean I’veforgotten what I saw growing up. I know what people are capable of, and I’m not naive enough to think this will be easy.
“It’s not about being clueless. It’s about being willing to do what it takes. The Bratva men are smart. Their women even more so. Behind their thick accents, plumped lips, and smoky eyes, they conceal sharp minds capable of understanding complex geopolitics and advanced economics. Don’t let their appearances fool you. Maksim will task his wife with cracking you open like an egg, and she’ll sift through the contents of your mind with her sharp nails.”
“How can I prepare for that?”
Vita smiles. “I can help you. But the most crucial aspect will be establishing the right dynamic with Nero. It won’t suffice to just share the same story. You must be able to read each other’s minds.”
My chest tightens. Can Nero and I do that? I won’t be able to keep him at arm’s length if we want to have a chance of pulling this off. We’ll have to work as a team. I’ll have to allow myself to get close to him but keep my heart under lock and key.
My nerves spike. I’m already experiencing pangs of longing for him, even though I know he isn’t right for me. I could never love a criminal like my mom did. But if this is my only chance to reclaim my life and help Nero, I have to do whatever it takes.
Nero can never know about my deal with Vita. If he gets even a hint of my ultimate goal, he’ll never let me escape.
“It’s a good thing you’re in love,” Vita murmurs. “Love makes this kind of deception far easier.”
More doubts creep in. Am I still in love with Nero? No, I can’t be. Whatever affection I still have for him is nothing but an echo of what used to be there before.
Vita picks up her knife. “The trick is to lean into the truth whenever possible, because that’s what will sell your eventual lie. You want to be ninety-five percent authentic and five percent fraudulent.”
“What is the truth?”
“You want a better life for your husband.” She slices through a piece of smoked salmon. “Right?”
As much as Nero’s hurt me, I don’t want to watch him suffer at the hands of the Ferraros.
Especially not for my own sake.
I bite down on my lip. “Yes. I do.”
“And you don’t like my family very much, do you?” she asks casually.
“Not really,” I admit.
“Or the Messeros, for that matter. After all, it was Nero’s old boss who got him in this situation in the first place.” She pops the salmon into her mouth and neatly crosses her cutlery on her plate. “That should be enough. Those are your islands of safety—topics you can always come back to when the conversation veers off course.”
