A chill creeps up my spine. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Exactly what it sounds like.” She tilts her head, studying me. “You know Aleksander. If he’s not glued to that chair next to your bed, it means he’s chasing something. Usually at full speed and with no plan for what happens to him afterward.”
I frown. “That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only one I have,” she says. “His mother doesn’t play long games with ultimatums. When she sets a clock ticking, it’s not decoration.”
I sink back against the pillow, unease curling in my chest. “You talk like you know him better than most people.”
Something flickers across her face—amusement, maybe. “I do.”
I hesitate, then say it. “He told me you two used to be…involved.”
Her brows shoot up. “Wow. I can’t believe he told you that.” She lets out a short laugh, shaking her head. “He really is a whole different person when it comes to you.”
My cheeks warm. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
She doesn’t say anything.
“The lamb fell in love with the lion,” Selene says lightly. “Tale as old as time.”
“I don’t love him,” I shoot back automatically.
The words are out before I can stop them. They hang there, stupid and thin. Even as I say it, my chest tightens, like my own body doesn’t believe me.
Selene’s mouth quirks. “Sure.”
I look away, focusing on Lily’s small hand curled around the blanket. I need to think about something else, anything else.
“Kirov,” I say after a moment. “Do you know who killed him?”
Selene’s expression changes just a little. The humor fades. She leans back in the chair, crossing one leg over the other.
“No. But he was poisoned in business class, and whoever did it managed to do it between service runs without a single passenger in his row claiming they saw a thing.”
Something in the way she says it makes me look up.
“That’s…pretty specific,” I say slowly. “How do you know about the service runs?”
She shrugs. “We know Elena is involved, so it’s safe to say she did it. Only a crew would know how to get away with a murder on a plane.”
“It’s too risky, though,” I say.
“Not for a billion dollars,” Selene says with a small smile, and I suddenly remember what Aleksander told me about her, how ruthless she can be. But she couldn’t possibly be responsible, right?
I don’t call her on it. Not yet.
“Right,” I say instead, lying back against the pillow, letting my eyes drift to Lily again.
The door opens and I look up.
Aleksander steps in, and for a second I barely recognize him. He looks wrecked. Dark circles under his eyes, jaw rough with stubble, shoulders tight like he’s been carrying the whole building on his back. His gaze goes straight to Lily first, then to me, like he’s counting us. Present. Alive.
He stops when he sees Selene.
“What are you doing here?” he asks.
My face heats. Aleksander’s eyes flick to mine, something unreadable there, then back to Selene. There’s a look between them I can’t quite read—history, annoyance, something else—but it passes quickly.
