I glared at him without responding.
“Why am I invited?”
“My uncle is giving you a chance to earn his blessing.”
“Blessing for what?”
Could this conversation get any more awkward? “You need to prove that you’ll be a good boyfriend.”
I tried to sound disdainful, but I ruined the effect by blushing.
Axel assessed me with a critical stare before he finally responded. “Fine.”
“We’re leaving Friday morning, so plan to meet us there.”
“Got it.”
His resistance to our situation had vanished the second he realized he had an opportunity here. I should have cared, but I didn’t. His motivations didn’t matter to me as long as he helped me stay out of Sergei’s reach. The fact that he was willing to play along with the charade was surprising, but it bought me some time to plan another escape.
I didn’t like Axel, but he was reacting better than I thought he would. “He also said that you’re hanging by a thread.”
“If we do this, we need to go all in.”
I looked at him with suspicion. “Meaning?”
“We have to sell the story. It’ll be bad for both of us if they figure out this is an act.”
He had a point. Neither of us would benefit if the truth came out. “Fine.”
He didn’t look at me as he drove me back. He parked and sat staring at the house for a moment. “Last chance to come clean to your uncle.”
I wasn’t going to do that willingly. “See you on Friday.”
CHAPTER FOUR
AXEL
Tools clanged noisily around me,and the smell of motor oil and hot engines lingered at the back of my throat. Without speaking or looking at any of the workers, I made my way to a private room at the back of the auto shop. I hadn’t seen Yuri, my handler, for several weeks, but it felt like years. He sat at the table in the middle of the dank, dimly lit room, and his eyes never left my face. “You look like hell. Are you okay?”
I sat down on the hard wooden chair across from him and crossed my arms over my chest. “How close are we to taking down Grisha’s family?”
“The information you’ve brought us about Grisha and his organization will be enough to convict him for ten years max. But you know our goal is to shut down his entire organization and put him away for life. Unfortunately, we need more.”
“I know,” I agreed in a flat voice.
“Any chance you can get closer to the family?”
I hesitated, for some reason not wanting to share details about my situation with Mila. “I’ve been invited to Zavidovo.”
Yuri’s eyebrows shot up. “The family weekend? How did you make that happen?”
“They’re trying to marry Mila off to Sergei.”
His eyes widened slightly. “What does that have to do with you?”
“After I returned her home, she told Grisha she was in love with me.”
Yuri didn’t even blink. “Is she?”
