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Still, he didn’t take the hint. He leaned to one side, as though trying to peer over my shoulder. “I’d love to meet her.”
“She’s sleeping right now.”
“This late in the morning? Is she sick?”
“No, she just likes to nap.”
I had my gun concealed, but I reached back to touch my finger to the cool metal. If this arsehole didn’t fuck off soon, I was going to pull it out and shoot him in the kneecap.
It occurred to me that he might be lying about seeing the smoke. For all I knew, this might be one of Rasmus’s men scoping out reports of a British man and an Estonian woman in the area. He might even know the number plate of the four-by-four.
Should I just shoot him to avoid the risk? Or would that just cause an issue all of its own? I didn’t want the police sniffing around either, and if a local man went missing and there were strangers in the area, they were bound to come knocking.
“We just don’t get many new faces around here,” the man continued. “Oh, I’m Adrus, by the way.”
He stuck out his hand for me to shake. I looked at it reluctantly and then took it.
“Leo,” I told him. There didn’t seem to be much point in lying.
“You ever do any fishing, Leo?”
He jerked his head towards the lake and a small wooden rowboat pulled up on the shore. The sight of the boat eased something inside me, and I took my hand off the butt of my gun. If this was one of Rasmus’s men, I highly doubted he’d have come here in a tiny rowboat.
“No, I hate fishing.”
“Oh, right.”
I relaxed a fraction, but I still wanted him to fuck off. I didn’t want Kaja to try and get his attention and ask for help. I hoped she realised that if she did that, she’d leave me with no choice but to put a hole in this bloke’s head.
I threw my thumb towards the cabin. “I’d better get back. Good to meet you, Adrus.”
He seemed surprised at my dismissal. “Right, of course. I shall leave you in peace. Welcome to Estonia, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your break.”
I gave him another nod and turned back to the cabin. I unlocked the door and hoped he didn’t see me doing it. If so, he might have wondered why I’d locked my ‘wife’ inside.
Kaja was nowhere to be seen, so I assumed she was still in the bathroom, though the sound of the shower had stopped.
I stood beside the window, keeping just out of sight, watching the man. He’d gone back to his boat but hadn’t pushed offshore. He was messing around with something—maybe his fishing gear.
Leave,I willed.Just fuck off already.
The man straightened again and glanced back at the cabin. Could he sense me standing here? Or had he spotted my shadow in the window? Why had he come here in the first place? He said he’d seen the smoke from the chimney. It was clear they didn’t get too many people around these parts, and maybe he’d just been desperate to have a conversation with someone. Even so, I didn’t like it.
Adrus scratched his head then turned back to his boat. He placed one foot inside and used the other to get off the bank. There was a bit of a wobble, but he managed to sit without spilling over into the lake, and then he picked up the oars and started rowing.
I allowed myself to breathe. His story was probably true, but I’d have been an idiot to take him at his word. I’d learned to be suspicious of most people outside of my family, and events a couple of months ago where our cousin, Sly, had betrayed us had shown me that I couldn’t even trust those closest to me. It wasn’t an easy position to be in and meant I kept people at arm’s length. I trusted Tam and I’d trusted Jodie, but since she’d died my number had been halved.
“What’s going on?”
I turned at her words. Her long black hair fell over one shoulder, damp from the shower.
“Nothing,” I told her.
I wasn’t going to inform her that we had a visitor. She might decide that escape was a better option than coming with me. Something occurred to me. If she were to escape, Rasmus would never believe me. She could vanish and start up that new life she spoke of, and Rasmus would just assume I had killed her. He’d never believe that she hadn’t wanted to go back to him.
“What are you doing at the window?” she asked.
“Admiring the view.”
