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Now they’re all laughing, and Vlad looks suitably stupid.
The tension is broken, as much as it needs to be for now. The real work will take place one-on-one as I get to know them individually.
Nobody welcomes change, but if I want you to like me, you’re damn well gonna like me. I’m as relentless as Adrik, in my own way.
“Do we need to clear out a room?” Chief asks.
“No,” Adrik says. “She’ll be staying with me.”
Andrei and Hakim exchange a glance across the space between their beanbag chairs, but this is no more than they expected. The calm holds.
“Come on,” Adrik says, “I’ll show you the room.”
We retrieve our suitcases, carrying them up the narrow staircase to the top floor.
I’m relieved everyone here speaks English. It’s the lingua francaat Kingmakers, and probably in this house, too, if Adrik gathered his Wolfpack from several countries.
I expect Adrik’s room to be the largest and most luxurious. In actuality, it looks much like the others we passed on our way. A wide, low bed takes up most of the space, covered with a red cotton comforter in folk print. The bed is neatly made, the room cleaner than any other part of the house. I doubt this was for my benefit—Adrik is more disciplined than he looks, and much more organized.
A wardrobe stands on one side of the room, a hefty bookshelf on the other, its shelves stuffed with tattered paperbacks.
“Did you bring those from home?” I ask Adrik.
He shakes his head. “I bought a crate of books in Danilovsky market. I like to read to wind down. I’m not sure exactly what’s in there, actually—haven’t had the chance to go through them all.”
The singular window looks down over the small back garden. I peer through the bubbled glass, bisected by slender molded mullions, with a pretty pattern of decorative tracery at the top.
“Garden” was perhaps too generous a term; nobody has tended the jungle of vines and shrubs choking the trees, and half the ornamental plants are dead while the wildest weeds run rampant. You could hardly walk through to the high stone wall behind. Beyond that, a jigsaw of uneven tenement buildings, rectangular and ugly, with metal fire-escapes crisscrossing down their sides.
“Not the best view,” Adrik acknowledges.
“I’m not here for scenery.” I set my suitcase down in the corner, turning to face Adrik.
“Then what are you here for?” he says, running a hand through his hair in a way that looks like it will smooth it, but really makes it stick up in more directions than ever.
“Why don’t you tell me? On our first date, you said you wanted to recruit me. What did you imagine I would do here? Where do I fit in with everyone else?”
Adrik shrugs, his heavy shoulders lifting and falling with almost audible weight.
“I told you Sabrina—I don’t plan to be your boss. I want you to run free. We’ll see what you come up with.”
A light heat spreads through my chest, and I let him see my smile. I worried that once I was here, he’d revert to some misogynistic Bratva and start barking orders at me. But it seems he really does intend to keep his word.
“Will you take me out tonight?” I ask. “Show me the city?”
“Of course.” Adrik gestures to the room. “Does this suit you? Would you prefer your own space?”
I consider. I might like my own space, but I also know I’ll be pulled into this bed every night like a magnet.
“This is good for now.”
Adrik smiles. “That wasn’t a real offer. I didn’t fly you across the world to be roommates.”
He opens the wardrobe.
“You can put your clothes in here; there should be plenty of space. I have to speak with some of the others. If you want to rest, there’s at least an hour before dinner.”
He leaves me to unpack, which takes little time since I brought only the single suitcase, mostly containing school uniforms that I toss straight in the trash.
