“I am not my father, Sacha,” I say softly.
“I certainly hope not, Annika Desyatova.” He stands and crosses to the door, not turning back when he reaches it. “Because I am going to cut the head off the Snake. And if you get in the way, you will lose yours too.”
* * *
I’m still awake when Maxim comes to see me. He raps softly, peers through a crack in the door that leaves a stripe of warm orange light across the bed.
“Come in. You just missed Sacha.” I sit up. I haven’t been able to sleep. My nerves are fried; anticipation and fear and hope mixing violently within me. I have a feeling I’m not going to sleep at all tonight. “Sweet guy, that Sacha.”
“He told me he came by. I’m sorry I wasn’t here to stop him.”
“It’s fine. I can handle him.”
Maxim keeps his distance, closing the door and sliding us both back into darkness. “Are you ready for tomorrow?”
“No. But I have to be.”
He says nothing, and I slip out of bed, crossing the room until I feel his chest beneath my palms. His heart is racing. I know with his men downstairs and guarding the drive, we shouldn’t do anything. We shouldn’t do anything,period. Because with every kiss, every touch, the hard line between enemy and lover dissolves a little more.
And I can’t tell anymore how much of me is play-acting, and how much of this is real.
I love you,I want to say. But are the words true? Would he believe them? Is there any point when a future is impossible for us?
Even if I succeed and rescue my children—ourchildren—what will become of us? Will we be a gangster’s family? Will we be fleeing my father’s wrath for the rest of our lives, living everywhere, as everyone, petrified of every shadow?
And that’s only if I’m successful tomorrow. The odds are, I won’t be. The odds are, I will be captured, or found out, or even killed. And if I do manage to win my father’s loyalty, he will never trust Maxim, his enemy. He’ll hunt down Maxim, the only man I think I’ve ever truly loved. He’ll kill every single person in his life, he’ll erase him from history.
We can’t coexist. It’s impossible. Tomorrow, everything will change. And so much of that is out of my hands.
But this, him, now—this much I can control.
“Let’s not think about tomorrow,” I say softly, looking up at him. My eyes have adjusted to the dark, and I can see the sharp planes of his beautiful face, the obsidian glitter of his eyes, the shape of his curls falling against his forehead. “Kiss me.”
“Annika…”
“This may be the last chance we ever get,” I say, surprised at the tightness in my throat, the pit in my stomach. I don’t want to lose him. I don’t want to lose himagain. “I might die tomorrow.”
“I’m not going to let that happen.”
“You can’t stop him, Maxim. Not if he…” Not if he, what? Kills me? Would my father be capable of that?Yes. He is the Snake—he’s capable of anything. And I haven’t exactly been the most loyal or dutiful daughter. “You can’t protect me from him.Ican’t protect me from him.”
As I say it, I realize just how much I mean it. My mother had to convince the world she was dead to disappear. And even then, he found her.
“Annika,” Maxim says softly, hands rising to cup my face. “In the end, he is just a man. And you…”
“I’m just a woman?”
“No, Annika. You’re more. So much more. You’re capable of anything. You are stronger, and cleverer, and fiercer than you know.” He touches his forehead to mine, warm, rough palms against my face. “But we can’t keep doing this.”
“Yes,” I whisper, closing my eyes. “We can. We should.”
I press my lips to his, placing my palms over his hands where they rest on my cheeks. Maxim kisses me back, softly. So softly. I want to rush in, to get him inside me, to lose myself fully and instantly, like I have the last two times we’ve slept together.
But the tenderness of his kiss feels…different. It feels familiar.
That night, I realize, as he softly parts my lips with his tongue.He’s kissing me like he did that night.Like we’re strangers again. But we aren’t—not anymore.
But for one moment…for one night?
