And my first instinct, impossibly, and despite everything that has happened, wasn’t to go with him.
It was to fight.
But I’m not on Maxim’s side.To turn my back on my father…what would he do, if he knew that was my instinct? Disown me? Kill me? Throw me to the wolves?
I quickly slaughtered my foolish, girlish feelings, and when the man ordered me to leap from the window and into the snow, I obeyed. We rounded the nose of the train, trudging miserably and too fast through waist-high snowdrifts. Now he’s dragging me toward a sparse lot with a few beat-up cars.
The fear pulsing through every vein is shocking. I shouldn’t be afraid. This is my father we’re talking about. The Snake. My family. My blood.
So why on Earth do I want to flee and run right back into Maxim’s waiting arms?
Oh, no.What happened between us in that train compartment—it was a mistake. I’m such a fool. I thought I was in control. But my feelings, the ones I believed dormant, were the ones in control.
The man jerks me forward suddenly, forcing me back to the present. I blink snow from my lashes. Even with a lifetime’s experience in cold like this, in Russia and in Canada, I’m not immune. I’ve been outside only a few minutes and already the cold is set deep in my bones, snow soaking the pant legs above my boots. My hair is wet with it. I realize I’m shaking.
“Where is my father?” I demand. We’ve reached the edge of the snow-buried lot. Floodlights wink here and there around the perimeter, illuminating nothing but high fields of black-gray snow. “How did you find me?”
A few cars sit sunken in the snow. One pulls out, blinding headlight flaring over the lot before pointing down the single road. It leads into pure darkness. The man drags me toward a small, inconspicuous car. Only a light dusting of snow coats the hood. He hasn’t been waiting long.
“They’ll kill me,” I say, stumbling after him. I try to pry his sausage-like fingers from my arm, but they’re a steel vice grip. “If they catch me, they’ll kill me. Do you understand?”
“They will not catch you.”
We reach the car. There’s no one else in the lot. The train is a winding snake of faded light. I know it’s not far away, but the weather and night make the distance feel endless. The shell of the station faces away from us like a turned back.
Maxim, I think desperately. “Where is my father?” I repeat.
The man halts at the car, unlocking the passenger side. He never once lets go of me. He has thick gray curls beneath a woolen hat, and the scarf he wears covers most of his face. Not that I would recognize him. My father has hundreds of men, spread like the roots of a tree through this country and so many others.
But still—his withholding mannerism, his reluctance to say anything…
Does this man work for my father at all? Or is he just another of his enemies?
“Oni budut brat’zmey rukami.” The words leave my lips before I’ve given them permission. An old Desyatov code, one I’m not even sure my father still uses:They will pick up serpents with their hands. I await the man’s answer, but he simply gazes at me, cool black eyes. “Chto zh?”Well?
The man pulls me toward him, so close I can smell the tobacco smoke on his scarf. “I yesli oni vyp’yut kakoy-nibud’ smertel-nyy yad, im ne povredit.”
And if they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them.He truly is one of my father’s men. “He knows I’m in Russia?”
The man nods once. “Come. We must hurry.”
“Maxim Volkov contacted him when I arrived. He didn’t answer.”
“Maxim Volkov is more dangerous than you know, Annika.” The man finally releases me. I touch my arm, certain a new bruise will be added to my collection come morning. “He seems kind, respectable even. But when push comes to shove, he is no different to men like your father.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“We have been watching you.”
Dread spreads like cold seawater down my spine. “Tak?”So?
“You were seen with him.” The man looks almost guilty saying this. I search his face, confused. “Three years ago.”
No.The world seems to fall out from under me. “My father knows?”
The man nods.
No no no no no.If my father knows I was with Maxim three years ago—does he also know why I left this world of his? That two children were growing inside of me? Heirs to the two biggest Bratva organizations in the world?Enemyorganizations? “What else does he know?”
