“Don’t let her make you reckless,Bratishka.”
My teeth meet too hard. The line dies.
I stare at the screen a second longer before setting the phone facedown again. I’ve never been this close to wanting to break it.
“ThePakhandoesn’t share your opinion on the hostage,” Viktor remarks.
“No. He doesn’t.”
“One of you may have to bend,” he says quietly. “It won’t be him.”
He turns to leave. “Petrov says Akim wants back on duty.”
“Roof only. If he looks at her again, he’ll be thrown off it.”
Viktor dips his head. “Renat can sweep exterior cameras, keep eyes on thePakhan’s estate.”
“Do it.”
When he’s gone, I get up and go stare out over the skyline. My reflection looks back cold and conflicted.
I set an alarm on my phone for sixty-nine hours, counting down Archer’s deadline, then head to bed.
Halfway to my room, I stop. My feet turn me around without permission and I find myself just outside her door.
I don’t knock. I only touch my knuckles to the wood, light enough she won’t hear.
“Sleep,” I whisper. “You’ll need your strength for the coming battle.”
I leave but I can’t sleep because every time I close my eyes, I see her face.
Killing someone’s family isn’t something you can ask forgiveness for. Even if it’s justified.
And knowing Gavriil…
Even if he gets all his money back, he may not let her walk free.
But I’m not letting anyone touch her. Especially not him.
7
Alina
By the next morning,the city moves below me like it’s already forgotten I exist.
Cabs crawl through intersections. A scaffold crew clanks metal five blocks over. Someone on a rooftop smokes and flicks ash into the wind as if there isn’t a hostage locked in a penthouse above their heads.
If I didn’t still feel the abrasions on my wrists or remember the plastic and ropes biting into my skin, I could almost believe the past few days were just a dream. That I didn’t get dressed in lingerie meant to humiliate me. That I didn’t stare Dominik in the eye while he photographed me as proof of my brother’s debt. That I didn’t slap him across the face like I had nothing left to lose.
But this is all real. Every terrifying second of it.
Archer owes the wrong men more money than we’ve ever seen. And I’m the leverage they’re using to draw him out.
There’s no good ending here. If Archer shows up, they’ll kill him and let me go. If he doesn’t, I suffer for his absence until they catch him and kill him slowly.
Neither of those options work for me. Archer will always choose the hustle. Dominik will always choose the job. I’m the only one in this equation who hasn’t been allowed to choose any damn thing.
I push away from the window. The guestroom feels smaller today.
