“Maps. Russian maps.”
“To where?”
“To places where I live. All the places… but how.” She shakes her head so hard her hair falls into her face. “What is this, Alexei? I do not live in some of these places for eleven years! Why does Polasky have all these Russian maps to me?”
CHAPTER17
Alexei
It’s a four-and-a-half-hour drive to Coynston. Most of the way there, I wonder if the police will stop us. I parked in a relatively dark spot on Polasky’s block, but there are no guarantees that some camera didn’t capture the car entering the neighborhood.
If stopped, we’ll be arrested for sure. There’s human blood all over our hands and shirts. That would be probable cause for the police to search the vehicle, and then they’d find the assault rifle in the trunk. Within days, they’d match the gun to shots fired at my warehouse. Two of the men there are probably dead.
I don’t share my concerns with Natalia, who is already rattled by what she found in the bag. Still, after the early outburst, she’s back to being as stoic as ever. She put the maps back in the plastic bag with her passport and then puts the entire thing in her purse, which she zips shut.
She asks to borrow my phone, and I nod.
“What are you doing?”
“I will check to see if he keeps other promise.” She downloads an app for her bank and logs into her account. Then she sighs and in Russian says, “Polasky, you beautiful ugly man. What have you done?”
“He sent you some money?”
She logs out. “Yes.” When she looks up, her cheeks are flushed. “All of it.”
“Good.”
“I do not understand why he does this for me.”
“Maybe not for you, as much as against Egorov.”
“Mmm, perhaps. Or does Egorov kill him because Polasky tells to him his plans to help me?” Natalia places my phone in the cup holder, then folds her hands in her lap. “It is dangerous to be my friend or to try to help me. In Russia too, a man was killed for this.”
“Who was killed in Russia? What man?”
“A man from Nizhny Novgorod. One who wants to tell me something he never gets to tell.”
I wait for her to say more on the subject, but she doesn’t. Her fingers smooth down her hair and tuck it behind her ears.
“If anyone asks you, Alexei, you will say we are not friends. You will tell them I runned away. You do not know where, and this is something you do not care to know.” Her head turns, and her large blue eyes bore into me. “You understand me, yes? To be my friend is full of danger. So you and I, we are not friends. Never.”
“We aren’t friends, and we never were. We’re more. We always will be.”
She frowns.
“Fuck Egorov and anyone working for him. You and I belong together. I’m not letting you go.”
Natalia sighs, but the corners of her mouth also curve into a soft smile. Her hand slides over and gently squeezes my forearm. “It is a special connection between us,” she whispers without looking at me. “I know this.” She licks her pale lips, then straightens in her seat. “Where do we go now, Alexei? To Boston?” she asks, glancing at the signs.
“Farther,” I say. “To Coynston. My brother’s town. Egorov won’t come into their territory to start trouble. It’s too dangerous.”
“We left Finger Lakes to escape your brother and his friends.”
“I know, but a lot’s happened since then,kiska. Egorov sent a hit team to a location I thought was secret. I killed two men. We left the Polasky crime scene covered in his blood. A five-star hotel in Boston isn’t an option anymore. Right now, we need a shady motel in a gangster town, and my brother’s crue happens to have one.”
* * *
Natalia
