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Boris had found Sophie’s number. He said he was headed to Crenshaw to find her. He had a few questions, he said, about Andre, Sophie’s ex.
In the motel room, Masha and Sophie packed up the toiletries, clothes, and dishes. Everything Sophie and Nikolai owned. They had to leave. It was time. Sophie, of course, would lose her deposit of six hundred dollars on the motel room, but she didn’t care. Running was better than sticking around and having some way to defend herself. And her son. From murderous thugs who knew no God.
She refused to take Masha’s gun.
“It’s perfect for you! I bought it for you!” Masha insisted. Masha had bought the gun off a Tinder date; some guy she’d met for a couple of drinks. He gave it to her for a French kiss and a hundred dollars. He sold them illegally, pre-owned, no papers.
Sophie grabbed Nikolai’s briefs and stuffed them into a trash bag.
“I don’t want the gun.”
“Only in case,” Masha said.
“No,” Sophie said, and she scooped up T-shirts. Everything was ironed and folded, how she liked. “I wouldn’t use it. I couldn’t do it. Not to no one.”
“Yes, if you had to.”
“We’re going away. They won’t find us.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know. Away, I said. Anywhere else.”
“But where?” Masha asked.
“They murdered my son. What more do they want?” She paused and looked up at the ceiling, then down. She bowed her head and took a deep breath. “I honestly think they’re all possessed. I’ll pray for them. If they come for Niko, I’ll drop to my knees and pray. I won’t kill. Not like them.”
Masha sighed.
“You know how they work. It’s not about you. It’s about Andre. To get back at him. For whatever he did. You need the gun, wherever you go. Listen to me.”
“Fold the jackets,” Sophie said. “Then go to the kitchen and pack up my pots.”
Masha ignored her. “This gun is tiny. Perfect for us. For tiny hands. Only six shots. Use it to scare. Don’t even load it.”
“Don’t load it?”
“Put it in your purse. For a rainy day.”
She took Sophie’s hand and gave her the gun.
“Here. Feel it. It feels good.”
Sophie held it flat on her palm, without curling her fingers around it. Refusing it.
“Feels good, no? Not too heavy. Not too light.”
She handed it back to her cousin. It gave her the chills. She’d seen Andre bust a man’s teeth from his mouth with the butt of a pistol like that.
“Where will we go?” Sophie said. “It’s a good question.”
“You’ll come stay with me. With Dr. Parks.”
“Yes, for a couple of nights, okay. But then?”
“Until you decide. But only if we can make an agreement. Can we? Can we make an agreement?”
Sophie turned and glared at her cousin. What agreement? She was holding back tears. She wouldn’t cry. She’d been crying since the night in the warehouse. She couldn’t stop.
