They looked at each other, shrugging. “I don’t see it,” Günter said. “You always look for who benefits from murder, and you and Lauren are both firstborns, but your families do have spares. No offense,” he said, holding up his hands. “Killing someone here at the Academy? We all saw what happened to those guys who attacked you.”
Closing my eyes, I fight back the panic. The feel of being crushed under all that rock. Compressing my lungs… Kon squeezes my hand, and it brings me back.
“You’re telling us that neither one of you got any instructions from your family when you came here? No side games?” Lucca said. It’s clear that he doesn’t believe them.
Jamilla’s eyes narrow. “My loyalty to my family comes first. I’m not telling you anything about them. But in this case, no. I didn’t have any sinister instructions.”
“Fair enough,” Kon agrees. “Do you two want to stay for the movie?” Tatiana looks at him, eyebrow raised.
“Depends,” Jamilla said, “what are you watching?”
“Murder on the Orient Express,” I said.
“The Kenneth Branaugh version?”
“Of course.”
“Then yes, we would love to,” she said, her tight body posture relaxing for the first time since they knocked on the door.
Why did you invite them to stay?” Lucca demanded after we said goodnight to Jamilla and Günter.
“I think they’re telling the truth,” Kon said. “I wanted to get a sense of who they were.”
“You really believe them?” Tatiana asks, “This screamed desperation move to me.”
“It may be desperate,” Kon said, “but that doesn’t mean they’re not telling the truth. Honest people can be desperate, too.”
“It was brave,” I agree, “and think about it. Even Casey, the evil mastermind of all things internet, couldn’t piece together any kind of… connective tissue behind all these groups. Nothing solid enough that would show anyone’s playing the long game here.”
“I still don’t believe them,” Lucca said, “all the newcomers are suspect right now. The two men who tried to kill Kon were newcomers, too.”
“Nothing is going to be settled tonight,” Konstantin said, dropping a kiss on the top of my head.
“True,” Tatiana agreed, yawning. “Mariya, are you staying here tonight?”
“Yes, she is!” Kon throws me up over his shoulder and heads for his room.
“Let’s go to your place,” Lucca said, trying to kiss a laughing Tatiana.
“Why do you believe them?” I asked, once we were behind closed doors in Kon’s room.
“There’s a million ways to tell when someone’s lying to you,” he said, “shifts in behaviors, changes in speech pattern orvocabulary. The little tricks to catch the lies don’t always work, especially in our world. But everything I saw tonight from those two was desperation to show they weren’t a threat. If our families can’t find a link between these new people, maybe there isn’t one. At least not all of them. The only problem with that theory…” he hesitates, pulling off my sweater.
“What’s the problem?” I ask, my hands pausing on his chest.
“It would mean there’s been students, hell, maybe guards, support staff, put in place before this year. That would be playing the long game,” he said. The dread I was feeling must have shown on my face because he grinned, grabbing a fistful of my hair and kissing me, noisily, with lots of tongue.
“I appreciate your attempt to distract me from our discussion, but-” My point was lost when he threw me on the bed, hard enough to bounce twice. “Kon!” I protested but his intent stare was directed at my cleavage and I wasn’t sure he was listening.
“You ready to play tonight,Pchelka?”he asked, and his tone was different. Deeper, rougher, like a scarier version of Konstantin was coming to the surface.
“Um…” I hesitated. I didn’t recognize this Kon, but then a corner of his mouth quirked up and I whispered, “Okay.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
In which there is so much sex.
Washing Machine Heart - Mitski
