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“Really?”
“Trying to escape. I’ve been digging a tunnel.”
“Ha, ha,” I grunt. “What have you really been doing? Your course?”
She tilts her head and pouts her lips, so sassy and enticing. “Are we going to talk about this now?”
I smirk. “Hazard of my job. It makes me far too comfortable with uncomfortable things.”
“Dario is going to kill Matvei,” she says, staring at me bravely.
“If it comes to that.”
“But you’d do it, too,” she presses.
“Of course, I would.”
“You’ve killed people before.”
I read her and grin. “You’re trying to make yourself hate me, is that it?”
She’s not in the mood for joking. She fidgets with her hair, twisting a curly strand around her forefinger, biting down as she stares at the floor.
“This is such an insane situation,” she says. “I know I’m stating the obvious, but it is. It’s confusing. A few days ago, you were a construction manager.”
“I am,” I tell her.
“But I thought that’sallyou were,” she continues. “The business, though…”
“It’s real,” I say. “All of them are.”
She glances at the door, lowering her voice. “So, what does the mobdo?”
“Knockoff electronics. Stock trading. Intimidation and blackmail for people who deserve it.”
“Define ‘people who deserve it.’”
She’s keen, interested, and alert in the most attractive way. It’s like she’s peeling back all the layers, not just of the business but of me, too. She’s forcing me to justify myself and tolookat myself. It’s captivating in a way I don’t fully understand.
“The last man we blackmailed was a hedge fund manager who helped cause a factory malfunction that killed ten local people.”
“Why would he do that?”
“He was betting on the company failing. We’ve got contacts in that world. He deserves what we’re doing to him. We forced him to pay us a monthly fee and money to all the families he ruined. I won’t feel guilty.”
“No drugs? No sex trafficking? No gun sales?”
“No,” I say fiercely. “That’s why I’m fighting the Russians. I want to keep it that way. Look at the goddamn crime stats. This city has never been safer. The mayor laps up all the credit. I’m happy to let him. I’m no Al Capone.”
“But it’s you,” she murmurs.
“Partly. Maybe mostly, depending on the neighborhood.”
She flashes me a confusing look. It’s the same tone as every moment we share—a clash of guilt and unstoppable attraction.
“Then you should be proud,” she says after a moment. “What will Fyodor do now?”
I find it far easier to talk to her about this than I should. Discussing it with Rosa was difficult, only necessary because of the Matvei situation.
