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Her follow-up question had been in a whispered-tone.
“Did you find the man who killed her?”
After my nod, her dreaded question came. “What did you do to him?”
“I paid him back tenfold.”
I had surprised myself by telling her the truth. Not because I hadn’t lied, I never did that, but by not omitting the ugliest parts. In the end, it wouldn’t matter though—the result would be the same. Once my mask, a polite veneer, peeled away, the monster was all anyone could see. This girl would be no different. I pushed away the idea that I’d probably scarred her for life. She was lucky. I hadn’t been much older than her when I’d been running for my life, chased by men with crossbows and dogs that would eat their prey.
In the end I’d had to cut our talk short, as I saw the strain in her eyes. Her mind wasn’t all there. I knew what it felt like when your life tilted on its axis, never to be the same again.
Viking picked up his phone, then put it away. “Sokolov’s here.”
So, he hadn’t returned to Russia yet. Instead, like the shark he was, he’d already begun circling my house.
When I didn’t react, he said, “Care to guess why he’s here? Or should I say, who he’s here for?”
“You assume he recognized the girl.”
A grim nod was my answer. I shrugged. Katya was the spitting image of her mother. That didn’t necessarily mean Sokolov had made the connection.
“Let him in.”
After another look, Viking did just that. Then he perched on the window sill, always having my back.
Sokolov stepped inside as if he owned the place. There were no pleasantries exchanged. He got right down to business.
“I’m here for the girl.”
“Girl? You know I don’t trade in women.”
He scoffed. “Don’t be…what do the Americans call it? Cute? You know who I’m talking about. The one that stabbed Boris.”
“Ah,thatgirl.”
His eyes narrowed. “Do you have any idea who she is?”
“She’s the daughter of an old friend.”
“The bitch is a bit more than that, and you know it.” Sokolov rose with the confident air of a man used to getting his way. “Tell her to come here. I’m taking her with me.”
I’d always suspected that one day it would come to this. One day he would push me too far. But I’d never expected it to be over a slip of a girl I barely knew.
“No.”
He froze. “No?”
He sounded as if he’d never heard the word before. In his defense, it had probably been a few decades since someone had dared to tell himnyet.
“She stays here. I promised her mother.”
Sokolov’s expression tightened. “I could simply take her, boy.”
“You could, but are you willing to go to war over this? What’s the point of killing me after spending all those years training me?” He hadn’t raised me to be who I was today because he’d felt sympathy for me. He’d done it because he needed generals in his corner for an upcoming war. I was the strongest one in his army of misfits he’d created over the years.
“You think you are Napoleon!” Sokolov spat.
I cocked a brow. “You think I have an inferiority complex because I’m short?” Six foot two was anything but.
