At that moment, Grisha stepped out the front door, looking extremely pissed. Everyone immediately gathered around in silence.
“Mila has gone missing from her bed.” Grisha cleared his throat. “We don’t know at this point if she’s been taken or if she left on her own accord. In the meantime, I want you all to start looking for her. Shake up your counterparts. Head to the airport. I don’t want anyone coming back here until she’s been found.”
Immediately, everyone broke up and started moving back to their vehicles.
I waiteduntil I was back in my car before calling Yuri, my handler, on a burner cell phone. Yuri was my only connection to my outside life. I fed him all my undercover intel, and he worked to keep track of me and support me. Together, we were doing our best to take down one of the biggest mafia families in Russia.
“It’s Axel.”
“We’ve heard about Mila. What do you need?”
“Can you tell me where she’s gone?”
“Hang tight,” he told me. I could hear typing in the background. A long pause hung between us before Yuri finally spoke. “She got on the Sapsan about thirty minutes ago.”
That surprised me. “Do you think she’s going to St. Petersburg?”
“Our intel suggests she’s heading to Helsinki. She’ll be arriving at the train station in about four hours.”
I started my car. “Got it.”
“That’s easily an eight hour drive. You’ll never catch her in your vehicle.”
“If I can bring her back to Grisha, I will be that much closer to gaining his trust.”
More typing. “I agree. Head toward the south side of the city. I’ll find a small private charter.”
“That works.” I turned onto the highway and hit the accelerator.
“It’s still going to be tight,” he warned. “Even if I can find a pilot who’s willing and available.”
“Do your best.”
I missedMila’s arrival at the Moskovsky train station by ten minutes, and, by the time I reached the arrival platform, most of the passengers had already disembarked. I stood at one end of the massive station and debated my options. The place was huge, with multiple entrances and exits, not to mention access to the underground station.
My best option was to head to the Finlyandsky station and hope that Yuri’s intel was correct.
I was walking toward the front of the building when I heard shouting and a woman’s scream. People began running indoors from the outside courtyard with varying expressions of fear and panic on their faces. Habit more than anything made me walk toward the current. Just outside the front entrance, I found the aftermath of a knife fight gone bad. I gave a cursory look around and nearly passed over someone sitting on a bench and wearing a hoodie. But there was something about the stillness of that person that made me swing my gaze back.
Is that her?I moved closer, positioning myself at an angle so I could get a better look at their profile.
It was Mila. She was sitting on the bench, still as a statue, staring blindly at the chaos unfolding in front of her. Her entire body was shaking like a leaf, but her gaze remained focused and intent.
She looked different than she had the previous night in the car, when she had been both fashionably dressed and spitting mad. This morning, her face was free of makeup, making her look younger than her years. Her dark curly hair was tied back in a tight ponytail, and she was drowning in her oversized cargo pants and hoodie. I studied her face. I would recognize those pouty lips anywhere. They overtook her small nose and wide brown eyes, which gave her an air of innocence, with a touch of feminine allure. Her face wasn’t conventionally beautiful, but it was so unique that it mesmerized.
When she stood up, I moved toward her. With her back to me, she watched, transfixed, as emergency workers ran toward the scene.
I didn’t move when she took a few faltering steps backward and bumped into me.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured quietly, before glancing up at me through her eyelashes.
Her eyes widened with recognition, then shock, then fear.
“Hello, Mila.” I tried to soften the blow with a smile.
“No,” she whispered, as she backed away from me.
“Why don’t we sit back down?” I offered.
