Emanuela braced her hands behind her and leaned back,stretching like a cat as she considered. She extended one perfect leg and pointed her toe at me. “Hit her.”
Gennadiy and I both blinked at her. “What?” he asked, after a second.
“Hit her,” said Emanuela, staring right into my eyes. “A good, big slap across the face.”
“No!” snapped Gennadiy. I could hear him fighting against his anger, trying to maintain control.
“She’s FBI. What’s the problem?” asked Emanuela, her eyes wide with mock innocence.
Gennadiy snapped. “Emanuela! I’m not here to play games!” He advanced on her, but Emanuela didn’t so much as flinch. She just watched him, delighted, and her bodyguards drew their guns and pointed them at Gennadiy.
“Do it,” I said quietly. “I can take it.”
“I know you can,” said Gennadiy stiffly. “That’s not the point.” He glared at Emanuela. “I’m not doing it.”
Emanuela grinned. “You like her,” she said, thrilled, “that’s why you’re helping her. But you don’t like her enough tobewith her.” She pouted at me sadly and stage-whispered. “Is it because of the leg?”
My face burned, and I gave her a death stare. She ate it up, loving my hatred.
“Emanuela! Did you order a hit on this woman,yesorno?”growled Gennadiy.
Emanuela rolled her eyes. “I deal with so many people, Gennadiy, it’s hard to remember.” She sighed and jumped down from the table, then snapped her fingers in the air, calling me like a dog. “Come here. Let me look at you.”
Gennadiy gave me a worried look, but I shook my head:it’s fine.I’d play along if that’s what it took to get some answers. I walked slowly around the table to her, painfully aware that this might well be the woman who wanted me dead.
She smiled at me as I drew close. “Do you want to know a secret?” She put her lips to my ear. “Gennadiy’s fucked lots of women.” She looked sideways, at Gennadiy. “But I’ve never known him tohelpone.”
Like an idiot, I followed her gaze and looked at Gennadiy.
Emanuela grabbed the back of my head and rammed it down, bending me at the waist over the rim of the water feature and dunking my head in the water. I screamed, which wasted most of my air.
I heard Gennadiy yell. “Let her go!”
Bent over and off balance, I thrashed and fought, my hair swirling like dark tentacles across my vision. But Emanuela had the strength of madness. I could feel my ears and the back of my head were still out of the water: maybe she wanted me to hear because it was just my face she was holding under. Butjust my facewould drown me just fine. Already, my chest was tight with the need to breathe.
Through the thick glass, I had a distorted view of Gennadiy’s legs running forward. He stopped right in front of the water feature, close enough to touch, but I couldn’t reach him through the glass. “Emanuela, stop it!” he snapped. “Let her up!”
“No,” said Emanuela.
I struggled frantically, but she bent one of my arms up behind my back to hold me in place, and with my feet clear of the floor, I couldn’t get any traction. My lungs began to burn, and I’d never felt so powerless. She was smaller than me, she didn’t have my martial arts training, and she was still going to manage to kill me. The panic clawed at my chest.Please let me breathe!
The distorted gray mass that was Gennadiy sprinted around the table, and I heard the click of a gun. He’d grabbed Emanuela and, I guessed, had his gun to her head, standing behind her so her bodyguards didn’t dare shoot. “Let. Her. Go!” he snarled.
But Emanuela’s hand didn’t move. “You can’t kill me, Gennadiy,” she said calmly. “If you shot me, my men would kill you before my body hit the floor. And then they’d kill Radimir, and Valentin, and Mikhail. So you’re going to stand here and watch her die. You wouldn’t risk everything just to save her. Look: she’s nearly done.”
My vision was going dark at the edges. I could feel my lips starting to twitch as my body’s need to breathe overwhelmed my brain. Any second, I was going to inhale and suck down a lungful of water.
Then I heard Gennadiy speak, and there was something different in his voice, a rawness I’d never heard before, like he’d been sliced open right down to the soul. “Emanuela? Look into my eyes.”
I felt Emanuela twist behind me as she turned to look. The world went dark, and I felt water fill my mouth.
Emanuela let go. I erupted upwards, spitting out water, and sucked in a huge lungful of sweet, sweet air. Light rushed back into the world, but my brain was still oxygen-starved. I staggered sideways and would have fallen if Gennadiy hadn’t grabbed my waist. I heaved in breath after shuddering breath and tried to take in what was happening. Gennadiy had a terrified Emanuela pinned up against the table with his body, one arm pressing his gun to her temple while the other held me. His expression was beyond frightening, beyond anything I’d seen before. “Now answer the question!” he roared at Emanuela. “Did you put a hit out on her?Was it you?”I saw his finger tense on the trigger.
“No,” said Emanuela desperately.“I didn’t order her killed.”
“Why should I believe you?” demanded Gennadiy.
“Because maybe I’d kill her,” Emanuela said in a small voice. “But I wouldn’t put you in jail. I’d want you here.” Her voice cracked. “With me.” In that moment, all the theatrics fell away, and underneath there was loneliness. And longing.
