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“A generous offer. Here’s my counter-offer. You kill yourself. Save me the trouble of doing it.”
“So much bravado but you don’t even know where I am.”
“I’ll find you.”
I hang up, and hit the button under the desk. “Belucci’s men have breached the outer perimeter,” I say into the microphone by the computer. “Be ready.”
I get to my feet. I must make sure my wife is safe. Like Don Belucci said, the game has a few more moves left to play. It is time to play them.
My father could not guarantee my family’s safety. Can I guarantee Mila’s? Do I love her? Is that why I must push her away? To keep her from being hurt by the monster I am?
I walk back to the room where I left her. She is still sitting there. She looks up at me with tears in her eyes. I want to embrace her. Instead, I beckon her toward me. “The attack is about to begin,” I say. “We must get you somewhere safe. Come with me.”
She gets to her feet. “You spoke to my father.”
“You can tell?”
“From the look on your face, sure I can. What did he say?”
“That he’s going to kill me and make you abort our child.”
Her hand goes to her stomach, rubbing it slowly. “He said that?”
“Do not worry. I will not let him hurt you.” I take her into the study, pulling open the secret door. “Get in the car, drive far away. There’s a cellphone in the side of the door. I’ll call you when it’s safe for you to come back.”
“I’m not leaving.”
“What?”
“I said I’m not leaving.”
“Yes, you are.”
“If Igor knew about this door and this tunnel, so will my father. I’ll be snatched before I make it ten feet outside.”
I curse as I realize she’s right. I shut the door again. “Fine, but you do exactly what I tell you.”
“So, no different to any other time then.”
“You go into my bedroom. You lock the door. You don’t open it to anyone but me. You got it?”
“That I can do.”
“There’s a gun in there. Anyone else but me comes to your door, you shoot, got it?”
“Got it.”
“Good.” I lean forward, unable to resist kissing her. “When this is over, we’ll talk.”
Her eyes light up but only briefly, like she won’t allow herself to get optimistic. “Just don’t die,” she says, kissing me back. “Got it?”
11
Mila
His blankets smell of him. That dark musky fragrance, mixed with the depths of the forest. Something intangible, something as mysterious as he is.
For all his simplicity, there is clearly a depth to him that I’m only just getting to see hints of, just as our time comes together comes to an end.
