“Nobody but the three of us knows about the deal I made you. Your reputation will not suffer for being reasonable,” Dominik says. Gavriil’s eyes warm a degree. Then he inclines his head amillimeter to me, as if a final warning to his brother, then he returns to the waiting elevator.
I don’t breathe until the doors close. That’s when I suck in air so hard I have to put my palm on the wall next to me until my lungs decide to behave. Dominik waits until the faint hiss of the elevator cables fades before he pivots toward me. He doesn’t ask if I’m all right. He doesn’t say I did well. He just steps closer and fits his hand around the curve of my shoulder, his thumb pressing once into the bone there, like he’s telling me I did something correct.
“Let me speak to him,” I say, surprising myself. “If Archer reaches out again. One sentence.”
His thumb stills. “Okay,” he says. “One sentence. Choose it now because you won’t have time later.”
I open my mouth and close it. If I had hours, I would use them and likely end up with something worse than silence. I think about what would hurt Archer enough to help me, and the thought makes me cold.
“I’m still breathing for now,” I say finally. “I don’t know for how much longer if you don’t bring the money where he tells you.”
Dominik’s mouth twitches again, that almost-smile. “Wordy,” he says. “But I admire the function.”
“I’m not good at poetry,” I say, and the way the sentence echoes his earlier barb at his brother pleases me in a small, petty way that tastes like victory.
“No,” he says. “But you’re good at getting results from your worthless brother.”
The phone on the dining table hums again, and we both turn. Dominik gets there first, of course. He listens, nods once, twice, and then says, “Warehouse,” and “Not that one.” When he ends the call, there’s enough tension left in the line between his eyebrows to hang a picture on.
“They’re coming into town,” he says.
“Good. Can I see them?” I ask, meaning the pallets of guns, the items my brother stole and Gavriil demanded be returned.
“Yes,” he says without hesitation. “On a screen.”
He retrieves his laptop from the study, something I would’ve done for him if he had asked. A little while later, the screen splits into four quiet squares: a mostly empty warehouse; the front of a van; a slab of concrete painted with lines that mean things to people who back trucks into places; the shadow of a man I think is Renat. Then the pallets slide into view, gray and solid and stupidly ordinary. If I squint and lie to myself, I could decide they hold something harmless like commercial refrigerators and not guns.
“There they are,” Dominik says, not like he’s confirming it for himself.
“If those are all full, then that’s…a lot of guns,” I whisper, uselessly. The magnitude doesn’t register the way I expected it to. It should feel like weapons that decide whether a man keeps breathing. Instead, it’s a relief, a promise my brother kept. One that will ensure Dominik’s peace with Gavriil for a little longer.
“Tomorrow we’ll start hunting down the money.”
“We,” I repeat. I don’t know when I went from hostage to plural, only that the word hooks into something deep and aching inside me.
“Yes, we.” Dominik closes the laptop as if he’s seen all he needs to see. “Come on,dikaya koshka. You should try to get some sleep for a few hours.”
“And you? Will you sleep, eventually?” I ask.
“I’ll sit down,” he replies. “Come on.”
21
Alina
Dominik leadsthe way to his room, and I follow him without question.
This morning, I woke in a building with an injured mobster who lives a dangerous life of luxury, and the only thing that felt real all day was my brother’s voice on a phone. Now everything feels too real.
I sit down on the side of his bed and immediately feel like a fool as he stands there staring at me silently.
“I should go back to my bed…” I shake my head and get to my feet.
“Sleep here,” Dominik says, erasing my embarrassment.
“Where will you sleep?” I ask, hating the way the question sounds, hating that I care so much about the answer.
He looks at the chair, the one I sat in last night. “Where else?” he says.
