Page 96 of Mafia King’s Dangerous Vow

I pause at the door. Papa’s voice softens. It’s the voice he used when I was small and frightened of thunderstorms, when he would sit beside my bed and tell me nothing could hurt me while he was there.

“Do not let affection make you stupid.”

I turn back. “Yours or his?”

Neither of us gives the other anything. Then I open the door.

Mikhail is exactly where he said he’d be, standing outside the office, hands in his pockets, looking bored enough to be dangerous. Papa’s man stands several feet away from him, jaw tight.

Mikhail takes one look at me. This time, he doesn’t try to make me smile.

“Ready?”

“Yes.”

We walk down the corridor without speaking. The receptionist looks at the envelope in my hand, then quickly away.

In the elevator, Mikhail presses the button for the lobby. Only when the doors close does he ask, “Did he touch you?”

“No.”

“Did he threaten you?”

I look at the blurred reflection of us in the metal doors. “Politely.”

Mikhail’s jaw moves once. That is all. Outside, the cold air hits my face with enough force to make me breathe properly for the first time since entering the building.

Mikhail opens the car door. Again. This time I do not comment.

I slide into the back seat and take out my phone. For a second, my thumb hovers over Aleksander’s name. The habit of secrecy rises automatically.

Protect what matters.

Hold something back.

Survive by controlling the damage.

Then I remember the file on his desk. The address he placed between us.

If that is what you decide, I will take you.

I type before I can change my mind.

Me:

He gave me a photograph

The response comes almost immediately.

Aleksander:

Come home

I put the phone face down on my lap and look at the photograph again. Ivan’s winter hat is crooked. Anna must’ve pulled it down over his ears before they left wherever they were going, and he must’ve pushed it back up the second she looked away. I know this with a certainty that hurts.

Papa thinks he handed me hope.

What he handed me is a clock.