Lev shook his head, righting a chair and a few pillows that had been knocked to the floor. “No, this man is,” he said, nodding toward the man in the cabinet. “Garner does not like to see Olivier’s face.”
“Garner?” Benedetta had mentioned the same name before we boarded the rat’s boat.
“He is the new French leader.”
“Oh.” I swallowed hard. “What about you? Someone is going to notice, aren’t they?”
He shook his head once more, ignoring the pitiful sounds coming from Nemours as he lifted him up. He had lost some consciousness but he was still moaning.
Instead of chancing it, I took out a needle from the rat’s bag. “Keep him steady,” I said to Lev. I didn’t even squirt some of the liquid out like doctors do in movies, just jabbed it into the rat’s leg, pushing the drugs not so gently into his muscle. Maybe he’d stay put a little longer. Also, payback was a bitch.
Lev grinned at me before he looked out the window. A boat was coming across, the one that took Fabre and Benedetta to the yacht. Lev set Nemours on a seat close to a window, propping him up. “Your husband’s brothers and their men will be here in fifteen minutes, if they have succeeded in subduing the men on another boat that belongs to Garner. He sent for more men to protect the yacht. The Italian, Giovi, is paranoid.” He took a step back, eyeing Nemours once more. “Give me a cigarette.”
I handed him one from the counter.
He lifted the rat’s head, tilted it toward the wall so it would rest, and then stuck the cigarette through the rat’s fingers, as though he was about to light up. “We will save this bastard for your husband.” Lev’s eyes lifted to mine, stone-cold serious. “If your husband’s brothers do not make it, we are on our own,zolotse.”
Don’t panic until the rest of the people on the plane do,was what I told myself. Brando. Brando. Brando.
“Is that normal? To do a job of this size alone?”
“Depends. I will do my best to keep you safe. But if the time comes you feel you must throw in the flag, jump overboard and go as deep as you can, and swim for as long as you can hold breath. Sharks are better companions than this group.” He nodded to himself. “All right. The boat is here. Follow my lead.”
I stared at Nemours for a minute. His head was tilted back, eyes closed, cigarette in hand, like he had had a good meal, or sex. I busted out laughing.
“One of those,” Lev said, smiling at me. “Do not laugh too long. The men might get suspicious.”
* * *
Play it cool, play it cool, I reminded myself as the boat made its way to the enormous yacht across the water. It towered over us. The men aboard moving along the decks reminded me of small figures in a game.
Lev stood close to me, neither one of us speaking a word. There were two men on this boat, and neither one seemed to notice a difference between Lev and the dead man aboard the other boat.
However, one man did notice the rat’s silhouette in the window and waved at him. Nemours kept still, still out cold from the pain or drugs, or both, the cigarette stuck between his fingers. The man cursed at him, claiming he had gotten high and was being rude.
Nothing he said about Nemours was nice as we navigated the waters. I had never met a man who could inspire so much hate. It was a wonder no one had killed Nemours. Maybe all of his drugs were preserving him past his expiration date.
Taking a deep breath, I stared at the approaching yacht, wondering if this was how Rose felt before she boarded theTitanic. The ball of orange glow had taken refuge, giving over the job to a heaven full of silver stars; their reflections danced playfully on the surface of the water, rippling with the tides’ sway.
The closer we came to the yacht, the more anxious I became. If hearts could pull, mine was the reason this boat moved forward. In that moment, I felt inhuman, full of wonder-woman strength.
“Your husband will not be able to walk,” Lev said from the side of his mouth. I had to do a double take to make sure the murmur came from him. It was quiet and quick.
“What do you mean?” I mouthed.
I had been so focused on saving Brando that I didn’t give his condition a thought. How would I find him? The endless possibilities set a cold hand to my neck, making me shudder.
“He is in chains,” Lev said in Russian, keeping his eyes forward, as though he never spoke at all.
In chains?I made the sign of the cross.
“Better than dead,” he said before the boat skimmed the edge of the yacht. A ladder dropped down so we could climb aboard.
Lev set me on the upward track, following behind. He gave me a shove to my back once my feet touched the deck. He spoke in a murmur to a man waiting for me and then went in another direction after.
I lifted my chin, acknowledging the man’s presence, and then followed him. I almost stopped in my tracks at the music drifting out from underneath the door. Sheena Easton.
What the—
