Page 100 of Mr. Match

“Why would they do that?” I’m so confused. “What’s happening?”

Victoria eyes Ethan. “Ethan, sweetie?” she says in a mom voice I haven’t had the pleasure of hearing from her before. “Why don’t you go to the little craft table over there and make West a Christmas card?”

Ethan gives her a sharp look. “Are you sure he’s—”

“He’s fine, sweetie. I promise. Now go.”

Ethan scrapes his chair across the floor as he pushes it back, and then he shoots her one more dubious look over his shoulder before walking across the shop to settle into a crafting table filled with crayons and paper.

“He saw the news last night,” Victoria explains.

“Oh, shit.”

“Luckily, he’s a cynic, like me.” She gives me perhaps the most real smile I’ve yet to see from her. “And he said, ‘That looks fake.’”

“What’d you say?” I ask, smiling with her.

“I told him West was working at the haunted house and someone made a mistake and called the reporters.” She shrugs. “It’s the truth, right?”

“I… guess. I really don’t know what happened with that, to be honest.”

“So,” she says.

“So,” I say back.

“Don’t bullshit me, Katya Kalashova. Give me the bad news. Where is he?”

I consider asking her who she’s referring to. And then I consider lying, but Victoria just shakes her head.

“Don’t bother. I know why you’re here and I know you’re here for me. I remember you, Kat. I was given to Gori Junior and you were given to Gori Senior. So I know he’s here to either kill me, take me, kidnap my kid, torture me—you name it, he’s capable. And he’s here, so don’t lie.”

“He’s here,” I say, feeling a little defeated. “And he knows we’re both in here, because he’s watching everything I do.”

She swallows hard. I get it, I really do. I don’t know what kind of horrible things happened to her while she was involved with the Gori family, but it doesn’t take much to imagine it. I lived it as well. “And now what?” Tori asks.

I shrug. “We wait.”

“For what?” she snaps. “What exactly is the plan.

“I don’t have the plan. I was sent here to—”

“I sent her here.”

Tori and I both look up at the sound of Mariel’s voice. She gives us both a warm smile as she takes a seat in the empty chair next to me.

“Why didn’t you tell us the plan yesterday, Mariel?” Tori asks.

“Because I didn’t know if it would work.” Mariel looks at me. “But it did, right, Katya?”

I nod. “Yeah, it definitely seems to be working all right. But she’s not the only one who sent me here, Victoria. I’m working for all of them. Liam, Gori Senior, and Mariel.”

I take a deep breath as I wait for Tori to catch up to what I just said. “Why?” she finally asks after several seconds of silence. “Why did you bring them here?”

“She didn’t bring them, Victoria. She’s just the bait. You understand that, right? You understand when you love someone so much—perhaps a father who saved you, or a sister, who you desperately want to save”—she looks at me for that last part—“you will go to extreme lengths to make things right.”

Victoria has a pained expression on her face. Probably thinking about her father. “I was there that night your father died,” I say. “I wanted to be saved by the Misters too. I saw Oliver—just this one little glimpse while all that shit was going down—and I wanted more than anything to walk up to him and beg for help.”

“Why didn’t you?” Tori asks. “He would’ve, you know. He would’ve taken care of things. We’d have known more if you did. Instead you come here, dragging bombs behind you, hoping that it will all turn out right. It’s bullshit, Katya. It’s selfish and you know it.”