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I swore as I followed Evelina at a short distance until she was safely inside Kristina’s building. It was easy enough to get past those key-coded doors. Even easier to take out a doorman after you scare him into telling you the correct apartment number. If someone was determined to take Evelina down, the flimsy security that gave me enough peace of mind to let Kristina stay, there was really no security at all. I had to believe the only reason they hadn’t come after her yet was because they hadn’t found her. But if they wanted her that badly, they would. It was only a matter of time.
I swore some more, calling for my driver to meet me so I could formulate a plan.
So much for my vacation.
Chapter 3 - Evelina
I got into the apartment and caught a glimpse of myself in the hall mirror. Flipping the long, red tresses behind my shoulder, I grinned at my reflection. I must have been more like Kristina than I thought because I loved wearing a different wig every day. I usually kept my dark hair in a simple bob that never reached my shoulders, making it easy to stuff it under hats when I was undercover. Still, I could get used to the wig life.
I set my coffee and snacks next to my keyboard, a bit miffed that I couldn’t sit and relax in the shop for a bit between work sessions. It was lonely and insufferable being cooped up in Kristina’s apartment without her, but I had been taking my brother’s warning seriously, only leaving for short periods and always in disguise. Leo wouldn’t be placated, though, and still refused to speak to me, only sending me daily messages to get my ass home.
Well, I didn’t take orders from my brother. I was dodging my father’s calls so he couldn’t give me an order I’d have to follow or risk a far more serious outcome than getting my twin’s cold shoulder.
Once I cracked the Novikoff’s most secret information, I’d be the one giving orders, and both Leo and our dad would see I was right all along. I settled in and put my earbuds in, ready to take notes on the most recent surveillance footage I’d gathered. I had run into a few snags that took much more time than they should have to iron out without Leo’s help, but I was no slouch in the hacking department and was managing just fine without him.
If only they weren’t so overprotective! I loved that about both of them; knew it was bred deep into their bones to care for the women they loved, but it could be annoying when I only wanted to spread my wings and fly.
Not much was going on today on my screens or in my earbuds. I had managed to pose as a lost tourist in a curly blonde wig and oversized sunglasses to get into the bar where I’d seen the Novikoff head and his men arguing. I just waited around in a hired taxi, assuring the driver, who was bored out of his skull, that I really didn’t want to go anywhere, and watched them on the remote access feed on my phone until they cleared out. After that, it was easy to slide into the booth next to the one they’d been in and stick my listening device under the table while the bartender mixed me up a Long Island iced tea and tried to give me directions.
Out of habit, while I worked, I turned around to crack a joke with Leo, who, of course, wasn’t there, and with a sigh, went back to staring at the screens. Kristina’s walk-on role had been expanded, and she was staying up north for a few extra days. Since she made friends everywhere, she went, the cast and crew invited her to the weekly wrap party after the episode was finished so she wouldn’t be home for the weekend, either.
I wasn’t what anyone would call an extrovert, but I was used to working closely with Leo or the employees at my detective firm. The past month I’d been living with my cousin Yuri and his wife Kira and had started looking forward to always having friendly faces around. There was always something exciting to do in Miami and plenty to do here in New York. But if I went out and did any of it and got myself killed, my brother would gloat about it at my funeral and say that he was right.
I tossed my earbuds onto the desk and rolled my shoulders. It was time to admit I was a little bit lonely. I needed a break if the creaking sound from my neck was any indication. Nothing was happening, and I was recording everything anyway.
I decided to slip on the blonde wig and go out for a quick walk around the nearby park. As usual, I slid my small 9 mm pistol into the back waistband of my jeans and pulled my vest down to conceal it. That concession wasn’t for my father and brother. That was just common sense in my life.
After I nodded at the doorman and pushed through the doors to get some much-needed fresh air—well, as fresh as it got in New York—I was shocked to see it was dark out. I pulled my phone out to see it was after eight. No wonder all my vertebrae were locked up, and my eyes were dry and grainy. Time often got away from me when I got into the zone with my work, but I didn’t want to go back in. This was a good neighborhood, the streets were well-lit, and I was armed. I needed some exercise, so I decided to just take a fast jaunt to the park and around the sandy running track once. Then back to safety—and loneliness.
That’s the price of getting what you want.
I could go back to Miami or Moscow at any time and give up this project, but I felt it would be my last shot at proving what I was capable of. Not just to my father but to myself. I knew I could lead because I’d been taught by the best, and it was what I wanted more than anything. I’d be shuffled back into a supporting role if I left now. An important one, but not enough for me. Was it so wrong to want more?
I snorted as I stomped along the sidewalk, pretty sure Leo didn’t constantly question his motives. He was much more easygoing than I was and less ambitious. If my father could have switched our personalities, I was sure he would have. It just pissed me off that he couldn’t see that he didn’t have to, and it hurt more than a little that I wasn’t enough as I was.
A sleek sedan with darkly tinted windows rolled up slowly alongside me, and I jerked out of my troubled musings. I had a supposed hit on me, for God’s sake. I needed to keep my wits about me. Veering off the sidewalk, I cut across an empty lot to get to the park. As soon as I was beyond the small gate that led into the green space, I surreptitiously turned to watch the sedan keep cruising down the block and round the corner.
Breathing a sigh of relief and snickering over my paranoia, I headed toward the deserted swings. I used to love flying and pumping my legs to get higher. No one was around, so why not? Then I could pretend my rapidly beating heart was because I was having fun, not because I’d been spooked by some random person trying to get through the narrow streets.
But I didn’t make it to the swings. No sooner had I gone around the wooden playscape that an arm snaked out from behind a slide and wrapped around my shoulders, drawing me back into a solid wall of flesh.
“Just relax, Evelina.”
The fact he knew my name, but I didn’t recognize his voice chilled me to the bone. Relax? Like hell. I grappled behind me for my gun, but he was faster, and I felt him pluck it from my waistband.
I elbowed him hard but barely drew a grunt. Kicked his shins which only made him jerk me like a rag doll. His arm moved from across my shoulders to up around my neck, slowly tightening. Stepping outside of the situation, I placed myself back in the hundreds of self-defense classes I used to take with Kristina on both our fathers’ orders. This wasn’t real, and I was well-trained to get myself out of the situation.
I slammed my head backward, expecting to feel the jarring thud and hear the crunch of his nose breaking, but it was like he expected me to do just that and only laughed a low, sinister chuckle. All while his arm grew tighter around my neck, he dragged me backward. Somewhere. Somewhere I didn’t want to be.
This was real.
Panic made me claw uselessly at his iron grip, feeling weaker by the second. Sparks of light wavered in my peripheral vision. If he didn’t let go soon, I would pass out. Then be at his mercy. Damn it, those swings might have been the last thing I saw if I didn’t get free.
I had one option left, and I opened my mouth to scream with the little air I still had. But he seemed to know I would do that too and slapped his other meaty hand over my mouth. Everything around me was racing away as my vision tunneled, becoming a pinprick as he dragged me from the playground. I flailed against the suffocation and clung to that little bit of light I could still see.
Until it was gone.
***
