“Well? Do you think it was enough?” I ask. Nik is letting me drive, a silly, almost performative modicum of control that feels better than it should. Sunset gleams through the windows. He relaxes in the passenger seat, expression inscrutable behind his glasses. “Do you think we lured the snakes out of the den?”
He snorts, pulling out a cigarette. “I think it was enough.”
I nod. “Good.” I feel him studying me peripherally. “What?”
“You realize we’re inviting a bunch of dangerous men to hunt us.”
“Yep.”
“That we both might die.”
“Mhm.”
He chuckles. “You’re crazy.”
“You love it.” I don’t know why I say it. It feels dangerous, like teasing the trigger of a loaded gun. It feels good.
Nik doesn’t say anything, but after a moment, he leans over and presses the cigarette to my lips. His fingertips are warm, rough. Desire winds tight deep within me, a shocking, almost traitorous impulse. I grip the steering wheel tight as he lights the cigarette, my heart skipping a beat. I take a deep drag, and as he pulls it from my lips, I let smoke pour from my nostrils.
He places the cigarette in his own mouth and relaxes back in his seat. I can’t stop fixating on the fact that, indirectly, we just kissed. Something we’ve never done. Something I never imagined we would.
Even if I wanted to.
“So,” Nik says. “Jesse.”
“Don’t.”
“He seems great.”
“Don’t,” I repeat, neck heating.
“Must be hard,” he says. “Getting yanked back into this world, having to leave him behind.” I can practically hear the smile in his voice.
“You’re an asshole.” We’ve just reached the thick northern tree line. The sun touches down behind the horizon as we ascend back into the mountains, the forest spreading green and dense around us. It’s a few more miles before I register the black SUV following us at a distance. “Hey. We’ve got company.”
Nik sits up and peers through the back windshield. “Since?”
“The city, I think. Could be a coincidence though. I can’t make out the plates.”
He sits back, looking at me. “You want to fuck with this?”
My heart clenches, blood running like ice. I touch the pistol at my hip, hidden beneath the bottom of my jacket. If Nik noticed me pocketing it back at the apartment, he didn’t say so.
I swallow, mouth dry. If I want to free my dad, really free him, Nik and I have to kill Lebedev. If we want to kill him, we need an entry point. They might have already taken the bait—if that’s the case, this opportunity is as good as any.
“Are we hoping they’ll be open to conversation?” I ask, my voice sounding feeble even to my own ears. “Or is this more of a sending-a-message-back kind of thing?”
“It’s the kind of thing where they die after,” Nik says. Suddenly, he places his hand on my thigh. The heat of him is bracing, an anchor. “We gotta start somewhere.”
I nod once. “Yeah. OK.”
“Do you feel confident running them off?”
“Jesus,” I say, on a whoosh of breath. “Yeah. Yeah, I can.”
“Zane…”
“I can.” I say it resolutely, and think of my father, and Anton, and Maya, and the tangled web Nik and I have to begin tearing through. “Hold on tight.”
