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There’s an unfamiliar chuckle. “Hopefully, all good things.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, and I bolt upright in bed. Sergey is standing in my bedroom.
46
TIMOFEY
I dodge to the right a millisecond before she pulls the trigger.
Sound explodes in the small space. I smell gunpowder and see smoke in the air as I charge at her.
Noelle flails, trying to readjust her aim. Luckily for me, she hasn’t had any formal training. She doesn’t know what she’s doing.
A second shot goes off. The blast rings in my ears, so I know it was close. But I’m still standing. I’m okay.
A moment later, Noelle can’t say the same.
I drive into her midsection with my shoulder. The wind rushes out of her in a grunt, and she releases the gun. It clatters to the floor, but doesn’t go off. Another stroke of luck.
By the time she recovers and tries to fight back, my hand is around her neck. “Tell me what happened to Benjamin.”
“You’ll kill me either way,” she splutters.
Her face is turning red from the press of my palm against her throat. I press down further, though not as far as I’d like. What I wouldn’t give to crush the life out of this snake here and now.
“Maybe I will,” I admit. “But if you tell me what you know, at least you’ll die with honor.”
She tries to laugh, but it comes out choked. “Piper blabbed about honor, too. Funny, since she’s dating you. There’s no honor in a life of crime. I should know.”
“You don’t understand shit. Not about me or Piper.”
“Look at yourself,” she says. “You’re choking a woman on the floor. What kind of honor is—”
I lean forward until I’m in her face, teeth gritted. “I’m here for Benjamin. And for Piper. I do what I do to take care of the people I love. I do it to make sure the men I employ can feed their families and take care of themselves. In the process, I hurt as few people as possible. There is honor in loyalty. There’s honor in thinking about a single other human beyond yourself. Though you wouldn’t know much about that.”
She stares up at me, and for the first time, I look back.Reallylook back.
What I thought were exhausted dark circles under her eyes are actually bruises poorly covered with makeup. Her nose sits slightly crooked, the bridge holding onto a hint of swelling. A shadow along her jaw doesn’t match the dim light source of the bedroom window behind her.
“Who beat the shit out of you?” I ask.
Her expression hardens. “Who the fuck do you think?”
“Kreshnik is not the kind of man people go into business with on a whim. You were stupid not to come to me for help.”
She twists her head away, staring at the wall. “Yeah, well, it’s too late for regrets now.”
“It’s never too late to make things right, though. Tell me what happened to Benjamin.”
She sets her jaw. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Try me.” She doesn’t move, but I loosen my hold on her neck. “What else have you got to lose?”
I think Noelle might be stubborn until her last breath, but then she turns to face me. “I had Benjamin with me at first. I kept him for a couple days after I… after I got him from your house. Kreshnik was worried about me being followed or captured by the police. If I went directly to him with the child, it could be dangerous for him.”
“Where did you take him?”
“A safehouse Kreshnik gave me the key to. It was some studio apartment uptown. I stayed there for a couple days. He didn’t get the place ready at all. There weren’t any diapers or other supplies, so I had to buy everything with my own money. Diapers, formula, a bassinet. It was expensive.”
