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Is this another bribe to keep me happy? Probably, but I don’t care anymore. I would’ve been happy with a ten-year-old beater that ran. Any car of my own gives me back my freedom.
But instead, I received yet another golden cage.
I grip the wheel in red leather driving gloves and tap the gas pedal, racing forward. “We need them to stay with us,” I remind Emma.
“It’s a joke, Paige.”
This morning, I found Emma upstairs, watching Viktor from a window in an empty bedroom. The Bratva had been out all night, but you couldn’t tell by how they were waiting and ready.
Dressed in a black suit and tie, Viktor stood in the front driveway by a Rover, his hair buzzed off and dark sunglasses obscuring his eyes. Emma’s eyes were rimmed in red, and her nails were chewed down to the pink.
I decided to take her somewhere away from him. She needed to go out and be reminded that a better world exists away from this place.
We head to the outskirts of Twin Rivers to the Key City Diner along the river. Key City is famous for its huge all-day breakfasts. The building is a double-wide, resembling an old-fashioned railroad car with its painted red metal and silver trim along the corners. It’s set far back from the road, surrounded by a potholed parking lot packed with vehicles.
The food is the reason for the crowds, not the decor.
I park near a Lexus and feel at ease that everyone eats here. My guards park across the street in the spillover parking lot. The four burly men don’t stand out as much since my insistence that they wear athleisure when they’re out with me. They might grumble among themselves at being forced to dress in the bad stereotype of Russians in Adidas, but they comply nonetheless.
They fit in with the rest of the people eating from to-go containers in their cars and on the grassy field near the water on a hot day like this.
I don’t want to be followed around like I’m attending a perpetual wake.
Music from a car speaker floats over to the diner, and the breeze off the water cools my skin as Emma and I go inside. I pick a booth where I can see the Rover from the window, so they can easily see us. My gaze scans the noisy room, and I check for recognizable faces, eager to avoid anyone I might know.
But the packed diner looks harmless, young parents out with their kids. Elderly couples in deep conversation with coffee and pie by their elbows. Teenagers share plates of gravy fries while checking their phones.
Nothing but the norm I was used to.
Nothing but the norm I can’t ever return to.
I try to relax and pretend that I’m back home again. No one is interested in me. Nobody knows me. I’m nameless here among everyone else. I can be nobody here, and not the pakhan’s wife.
I toss my purse down on the long wooden bench beside me while Emma sits on the opposite side of the table. I shift in my seat, trying to get comfortable, staring at my menu and debating on pancakes or a BLT.
Emma skims her menu, placing it down on the table. She glances outside at the Rover, rising above the other cars. “Don’t you trust Kenney to keep me safe?” she asks, finally broaching the real topic at hand.
Kenney sent me a text a few days ago, and I was surprised to receive it. One, I didn’t know he had my new number. Two, I hadn’t seen him since my mother’s death. I asked Kenney if he had found out anything, but he apologized for not having any new information. He assured me the investigation was ongoing and wanted to see how I was doing.
I must’ve changed my clothes twenty times before leaving the house to come here. I still remember how Kenney looked me over that day in the bar, calculating the cost of every item I wore. Today, I do my best not to stand out, and avoid wearing anything worth more than the surrounding real estate.
I don’t bother to hide my wedding ring.
There are other women in this place flashing big rings like mine. I glance around again and sigh, realizing that I don’t fit in here anymore. No matter how hard I try.
Emma could not care less if she fits in. Her nails are perfectly manicured in pale blue, and her flimsy surf sandals cost several hundred dollars. She taps at her new Apple watch while thin gold bangles slide up and down her arms. Each bangle has a precious stone embedded in the center. Gifts from Andrei after Viktor’s initiation. She spent a whole day badmouthing Andrei behind his back until Natasha convinced her to forgive him.
“I’m trusting you not to run away,” I finally respond.
She tilts an eyebrow. “While I’m out with our cousin thecop? How far could I even get?”
I catch her eye. “I know you’d rather find your friends and be with them. But it’s not safe yet.”
Shrugging, she smooths out her tone. “It’s okay, Paige. I appreciate this. Getting out to go anywhere is nice.”
“Have you talked to him?” I ask quietly, hoping that talking about Viktor isn’t taboo between us.
“No, I have a new guard.” Emma scoffs and looks out the window at the Rover. “Older, fatter, hairier. One that I’ll never have a crush on.”
