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I’ve noticed that no one talks about Eva. I thought it was to respect Andrei, but now I doubt it. “If you were me,” I ask him. “What would you do?”
Finally, Viktor looks at me. “I’m sure you met some good people at the funeral.”
“I can’t go behind Andrei’s back,” I reply firmly. “It’s a death sentence.”
Viktor sits back and shrugs his shoulders. “Then find him a mistress.”
“What?” I shout, almost losing control of the car. My hands tighten around the wheel, and I shout again. “Why would you say that?”
“If he loses interest in you, you could have your freedom,” he replies. “But he won’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because he loves you,” he replies thoughtfully. “You’re an attractive woman who isn’t selfish. Smart and brave. Someone who is willing to risk her life for someone she loves. Andrei Vasilyevich will move heaven and earth to keep you by his side. The only way you’ll be free of him is in death.”
“I …” The thought is too awful to think, but Viktor continues anyway.
“You don’t have to say anything,” he says. “Just be patient and wait. But while you wait, you need to make some friends. The wives help each other out, and Talia is nobody’s wife, so you already have an advantage there.”
The thought makes me ill. I would never betray Andrei. But what would I do for Emma and my baby?
It’s an awful thought.
If Andrei doesn’t come home one day, I’ll go mad. And those thoughts make me not want to leave. There must be other ways to get what I need.
Viktor is quiet again, but when I glance over at him, something has his attention. I look into the rearview mirror, and a large black SUV is driving behind us about a car length away. I change lanes, and it does the same. I change into the slow lane, and it slows down, not passing us.
“You see it too?” Viktor asks.
“Andrei is expected to take over the Karamazov Bratva,” I whisper, as if we could be overheard. “After he does the unthinkable.”
We don’t speak again as I concentrate on the road, and Viktor sits up in his seat and holds onto his gun. I don’t say what I’m thinking out loud. But I can tell by his alertness we have the same thought.
If Andrei is expected to eliminate Sonya, then Sonya must be expected to eliminate Andrei and his family.
That includes Emma and me.
Nothing happens. The SUV continues down the Thruway when I make the turn at the service road. But it doesn’t matter to my heart that nothing happened. It pounds so loud I think it will fly out of my chest. I hurry upstairs with my shopping bag to the suite.
I check each room of our suite to make sure I’m alone. No Andrei. The spare bedroom is the best place to hide it. I open my tote bag, and inside is the small portable safe—an ugly, chunky thing with a keypad on the lid. I hurry into our bedroom and start opening my dresser drawers. I stare at the first diamond necklace Andrei bought me. The sapphire pendant and two sets of diamond earrings. I toss them in a tote bag that will go into the safe.
Emma and I have no money of our own. I was counting on the will to change things, at least for Emma. I cry angry tears when I think about how I was tricked. Again. Dad wanted us to have that money, and we can’t leave here without it. A few thousand in the bank won’t get us far enough away. It won’t cover a month’s rent anywhere. We can’t hide away from the Bratva on pennies.
I realize that if Andrei fails, he may not be able to protect Emma or me. And he knows it too.
Chapter 13
Andrei
“I’ll send you a list.” Dmitri sprawls across the couch, typing on his laptop. My laptop chimes. “Here.”
Paige glances up from her phone but says nothing. She wants to be included in the business more, and I suspect it’s to keep an eye out for Emma and make sure I don’t do something that she won’t approve of.
I look at Dmitri’s list. It’s short, with no one remarkable.
“Is this it?” I ask.
“We need time to woo the best,” he explains. “Alliances have been put in place since birth.”
