AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You have to admit, it’s a good strategy. The moment we dangle her in front of him, he’s going to pounce—” The very thought is making my hands clench into fists. “—and that’s when we trap him.”Fuck.“What do you think?”
“There are risks.”
“Every single plan we come up with will have a risk. At least this one has a high probability of succeeding.” Nikolai’s glare becomes more pointed. “Unless you’re trying to tell me you care about the—”
“It’ll work.”
Nikolai’s mouth snaps shut. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” I smack him on the back on my way into the house. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s been a long day.”
The moment I slam the door on him, I let my facade of indifference fall. Putting Alyssa directly in Sobakin’s path feels counterproductive. It feels wrong. It feels… unnatural.
But not doing it… what would that mean?
“Penny for your thoughts?”
I glance to the side as Polina appears from the corridor. I push myself off the door. “When you were little you used to go around saying, ‘Polly for your thoughts.’ Do you remember that?”
She cringes. “I was, like, three.”
“How old are you now? Four? Five?”
Flashing me a middle finger and a matching scowl, she asks, “Want some dinner? We made blinis.”
“‘We’?” My heartbeat quickens. Surely she doesn’t mean—
“Mariska and me. Not Lev. He still hates me.”
“He does not hate you,” I sigh with a sigh.
Shepshawsas if it doesn’t matter one way or the other, though I know it hurts her that he doesn’t reciprocate her love as openly as she’d like. “Whatever. Do you want food or not?”
It’s not like Pol to be so short with me. The girl’s got an abundant reserve of patience. She reminds me of Alyssa that way.
No. Stop it. Stop thinking of Alyssa, goddammit.
“I’ll take a blini.”
She walks me to the kitchen and starts preparing a plate for me. It’s clear that she’s preoccupied, though. Her usual smile is gone and her eyebrows seem permanently glued together.
“Is there something bothering you?”
“I don’t know.Shouldthere be something bothering me?”
I lean a hip against the counter and fold my arms over my chest. “Polina, is there something you’d like to say to me?”
“Is there something you’d like to say tome?”
Biting back my irritation, I say, “Thisis the day you decide to behave like a snotty teenager? Was there an occasion or you just wanted to be unpredictable?”
She gives me the stink eye and starts loading my plate with food, still pointedly not answering any of my questions.
“You haven’t poisoned those, have you?” I drawl. Her lips twitch but she refuses to smile. I clear my throat and try again. “So what have you been up to today?”
“Oh you know, same ol, same ol. Watched TV, went for a walk, read a book. Met the woman you’ve got trapped down in the basement.”
Wait.
