Page 110

Also true. Technically.

Kirill looks down the corridor, then says something to the guard beside him in Russian. The guard nods and moves in the direction of the library.

My stomach twists. That was not part of the plan.

But I keep my face still. If I react, I’m finished.

Kirill starts toward the side entrance, and I walk with him. He glances at me once. “You are going with Irina?”

“She asked me to.”

“For what?”

“Anya’s things,” I say. “There are books or clothes or something she wants me to check. I don’t know. She explained it very quickly and with a lot of judgment.”

That sounds enough like Irina that he says nothing else.

At the side entrance, Irina is waiting beside her car with sunglasses on, handbag in place, and irritation already loaded.

“There you are,” she says, barely looking up. “We should have left already.”

Kirill looks at her. “You wanted me to come?”

Irina gives him a blank look, then glances at me. In her mind, he already knows. In her mind, Nikolai has approved this, Kirill has been informed, and everyone is simply taking too long to obey.

“Yes, obviously.” She says it with such confidence that for a second even I almost believe everything has been properly arranged.

Kirill gives a small nod and reaches for the keys.

Irina looks at him. “What are you doing?”

“Driving.”

“No. I’ll drive.”

He gives her a look. “You asked me to come.”

“I asked you to come, not take over,” she says.

I stand there trying not to react, because this is still fine. Better than fine, actually. If Irina drives, Kirill will sit in the front passenger seat and Anya can stay hidden in the back.

Then Irina opens the driver’s door, looks at Kirill standing beside the passenger side, and immediately changes her mind.

“No, actually, you drive.”

My stomach drops.

Kirill pauses. “Why?”

“Because I don’t want you sitting beside me watching everything I do. You make people nervous.”

He stares at her for a moment, then comes around the front of the car toward the driver’s side.

This is bad. Very bad.

I glance toward the side door of the house.

Anya is waiting just inside, exactly where I told her to be, wearing the blue dress she chose and holding Lily’s gift against her chest. She looks at me, then at Kirill walking around the car.