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For the first time, I obey him without question. My coat and gloves are still inside Grisha’s apartment, but there’s no chance of me going back for them. I start walking down the street, phone clutched to my ear.
I don’t look back.
Levin
Levin, come get me. Please.
You have to come get me.
I’m scared.
What I felt when I heard Lidiya’s tremulous, shaking voice on the other end of the line was a dark fury, an all-encompassing rage like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.He’s hurt her,was my first thought, and in that moment, I felt certain that Grisha would never get to face his day of judgment for his machinations.
I’d kill him myself first.
Deep down, I know that sort of visceral reaction is out of line. Lidiya isn’t mine to protect, avenge, or feel jealous over. She’s a useful tool, a means of completing this job to Vladimir’s satisfaction. I should have asked questions, made sure that she wasn’t just panicking, that she wasn’t bailing. But the pure, raw fear in her voice had caused me to make a snap decision, and now I’m on my way towards the signal of her phone, driving along the Moscow streets with a keen eye on the sidewalks.
It’s dark now, not as busy as it might have been earlier but harder to see. Still, as I draw closer to the tracking signal on her phone, I catch a glimpse of a young woman with blonde hair bright under the streetlamps, in a thin black dress and nothing else, her shoulders bare. No coat, no gloves, only the dress and heels, shivering so hard in the Moscow cold that I can see it from here.
“Goddamnit, Lidiya!” I hiss under my breath, pulling the car to the curb. It’s an illegal parking spot, but I don’t care—another mistake. Not drawing attention to myself through breaking unnecessary small rules is one of the first tenets of the job. No parking tickets, no speeding tickets, no jaywalking. Nothing to get you on the wrong side of the law without good reason, nothing to give you a paper trail of petty crimes they can track you with later.
In the shadows, I’m death. In the light of day, I’m a good upstanding citizen.
I leap out of the car, leaving it running as I hurry towards the sidewalk. “Lidiya!” I call out her name, not loudly but sharply enough to get her attention, and she looks over, her eyes widening with such palpable relief that I feel a twisting ache in my chest that I can’t remember having experienced before. I’d never imagined that I’d see Lidiya Petrovna look at me that way, like I’m her savior, like I’m the one person on Earth she wanted to see more than any other.
I like it far more than I should.
“You’re going to freeze to death.” I grab her by the shoulders, hustling her towards the car. “Your coat? Gloves?”
“At Grisha’s,” she says thickly, through lips that are probably numb by now. She feels cold to the touch, and I get her into the car as quickly as possible, opening the door and helping her into the passenger’s seat. The moment I’m back in the driver’s, I look over at her, assessing her with a keen eye. There are no visible injuries that I can see, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything.
“What happened?” I ask, pulling back out into traffic and turning back towards the hotel. “What did he do to you, Lidiya? How badly hurt are you?”
“I’m not—” she shivers, reaching over to turn the heat up. Her teeth are still chattering. “He didn’t do anything to me. Well, he tried to, but—”
I glance over at her, confused. “What do you mean? What did he try to do? Was he armed? Did he pick up on something?”
“No, he—he started to come on to me. He was sliding his hands up my legs, kissing my neck, my ear, and I—”
It takes more effort than I’d like to ignore the white-hot bolt of jealousy that shoots through me at the idea of Grisha between Lidiya’s legs, his hands on her thighs, his mouth on her neck—not that I should feel jealous at all. There’s no reason for it.
But beyond the jealousy is a flash of anger, too—this time towards Lidiya.
“I don’t understand,” I say tersely. “You were meant to rekindle your relationship. You know that meant sex, too. You were fucking him before, right?”
Lidiya is silent as we pull up in front of the hotel. I put the car into park as I wait for the valet, glaring at her. “Right?”
She bites her lower lip. “Yes,” she murmurs quietly, and there it is again, that hot pulse of jealousy in my veins.
I want to cut his fingers off for ever touching her. Feed him his own balls for—
Get it together, Volkov.
“And you enjoyed it, before?”Fuck, I don’t want to know this.The image of Grisha touching her, fucking her, is bad enough, but the image of Lidiyaenjoyingit, her head tipped back in pleasure, mouth open, moans spilling out to fill the air—
It makes me murderous.
She swallows hard, and there’s a knock at my window. It’s the valet, and I force a pleasant smile to my face, getting out of the car.
