Page 19 of Dark Soul

She took a deep breath. She didn’t like the cold, dangerous vibes Kvyat’s security men gave off, so she usually avoided them. It was lucky that they avoided her as well, most of the time acting like she wasn’t even there.

Of course, maybe the reason she didn’t like them was that their existence reminded her just how much she was playing with fire. If Ilya and Dmitri found out why she was really here, they were the kind of men who could kill her and make her body disappear.

She shook her head.

Sledding.

Focus on the sledding.

“Where do you want to go?” Ilya, the burliest of the two, all but snarled.

As long as she’d been here, Alexia hadn’t been able to figure out which one of them was the boss. Both men seemed, to her, to work in perfect tandem together.

“Not far,” Alexia said, squaring her shoulders. She knew just the right place—a slope that was steep enough to provide a challenge for Nikolai, but not so steep that he’d be frightened. “We can walk, or you can drive us. It will just be an hour or so. We’ll be back for lunch.”

The one called Dmitri spoke for the first time.

“And this is part of … English class?” he said, in his thick Russian accent.

“It is,” she said. And she might be stretching the truth a little bit by saying they needed to go out, but these two weren’t going to show her how to teach. She’d been teaching kids for a decade now, since her sophomore year in college. “If you don’t like it, I can speak with Mr. Kvyat—“

“Nyet,” Ilya said quickly.

Alexia almost smiled. She’d known already that they wouldn’t want to bother their boss.

They spoke amongst themselves in Russian for a minute, while Alexia waited patiently.

“Okay,” Dmitri finally said. “I will take you. Ilya will stay here. But only one hour.”

“One hour,” Alexia nodded. “Thank you.”

* * *

Alexia lowered her eyes to her watch. It had been more than an hour already, but Dmitri hadn’t said anything yet.

Maybe he has a little heart, after all.

At first, she’d found it really unnerving, this feeling of being watched by Kvyat’s security team. But, just a few weeks into the job, she’d learned to live with it. Even when she couldn’t see anyone, she knew Dmitri or Ilya were always somewhere nearby, watching.

And it should have made her feel safe, but she was starting to know her boss, and knew the guards were there as much to keep bad things out as to keep her and Nikolai in. Or at least, monitored every minute of the day.

She took a deep breath and reminded herself of the long game. There was a reason she was here. She just had to be patient.

She turned to look at Nikolai, who was reaching the top of the highest slope. He’d picked up sledding quickly—not surprisingly, perhaps, for a kid who’d had private lessons since the day he was born. Tennis, swimming, fencing, skiing … if Alexia could think it, Nikolai had done it. At least, all individual activities. His father didn’t seem inclined to let Nikolai play with others, which was maybe why the boy had never been sledding.

Alexia, on the other hand, had grown up sledding. Her family didn’t have money for skiing, not that there were so many places one could ski in upstate New York, but sledding, on the other hand … she and her brother had become experts at it.

Thinking of Rob brought a fresh pang of pain, much as it had every time she thought of him since his death, four years ago. But at least now she was doing something about it.

“Are you coming up, Alexia?” Nikolai shouted, his face pink from exertion, his light gray eyes bright with excitement. She was amazed at how much the little boy looked like the pictures of his mother she’d seen all over the house.

“I’m going to take a break, Nikolai, but I’ll watch you from here.”

Alexia was exhausted. They’d been up and down the slope ten times, and the boy gave no signs that he was even remotely tired. But Alexia was exhausted. Exhausted, and tremendously pleased to see him enjoying himself so much.

She looked behind her, realized Dmitri had moved towards the black hybrid Porsche Cayenne. He was on the phone, and for once not looking at them.

Never mind him.