"Please." Her lip trembles and more tears slide down her cheeks. "I don't understand. I haven't done anything wrong. I'm just… I'm nobody. I'm a translator. I don't have money. Please, there's been some kind of mistake."
"There's no mistake, Vivika. You're here for a reason." I take a step back but I can see she won't let this go easily. Who would? We just snatched her off the street and tied her up. Of course she's shocked, angry, and scared shitless.
"Then why?" She steps toward me as I back away, and her bound hands rise to her chest like she's praying. "Why me? What do you want from me?"
I am not a soft man, but looking at her pleading eyes almost has me ready to turn her loose. I think of the women in this family, my sister and a few of my cousins, and in the back of my mind,I hope to God Karma isn't a real thing. But I can't answer her yet. I have to organize my thoughts and come up with a good way to convince her why she's here and how it can help without triggering her to rebel.
So I walk out and shut the door on her and hear her pounding after I've locked it and walked off.
Yuri's waiting for me in the study downstairs, a glass of vodka already in his hand. The fire in the hearth has been lit, and I gravitate toward it to warm my hands for a moment. Then I pour myself a glass from the bottle on the sideboard and settle into the chair across from my uncle.
"She's secure?" he asks.
"Yeah," I grumble, still stewing over why my conscience got so weak when she looked at me.
"Good." He swirls the vodka in his glass, watching the liquid catch the firelight. "Now we talk about how you're going to pull this off…"
"She has to be groomed," I say, cutting straight to the point. "If we're gonna pass her off as Ana Veche, she needs to know how to walk, how to talk, how to carry herself. She needs to know enough about the Veche family to answer basic questions without giving herself away. Right now, she's a terrified woman who's never heard the name Ana Veche in her life. That's not gonna fool anyone."
"What do you need?"
"Information. Everything we have on Ana—photographs, recordings, reports on her habits and mannerisms. The more detail, the better." I take a sip of vodka, letting the burn settlein my throat. "And I'll need things to convince her to cooperate. She's not gonna play along willingly, not at first. I need to be able to offer her something that makes this worth her while."
Yuri narrows his eyes and turns toward the fire to watch the flames dance and lick at the wood. "Promise her whatever you need to promise. Tell her she'll walk away from this richer than she's ever dreamed if that’s what it takes…" He sips his vodka and then looks back at me as he continues. "Tell her anything that gets her to cooperate."
"So, I'm lying to her?" In situations like this, it's not often the captive survives. I know how he thinks. If she's useful, she sticks around, but for how long? She'll learn things about this family and our enemies that can be used against us. Of course, if that's the case, it'll be easier to put an end to her when this is over. I won't feel as guilty, at least. Or I hope I won’t.
"That depends on how useful she proves to be." He leans forward resting his elbows on his knees, his glass dangling between his fingers. "But understand this, Lev. Right now, that woman upstairs is a tool. Nothing more. She's useful to us only as long as she can serve our purposes. The moment she becomes a liability instead of an asset, we wash our hands of her."
He doesn't have to elaborate at all.
I know exactly what washing our hands means. If this goes wrong, there's only one way to ensure our safety.
"She won't be a liability," I say. "I'll make sure of it."
"See that you do." Yuri drains the rest of his vodka and sets the glass on the short side table next to him. "And don't let her out of your sight for a second. Until this is finished, she'syour responsibility. If things go sideways, she's your problem to solve."
"I understand."
"Do you?" His gray eyes bore into mine, searching for any hint of weakness or hesitation. "Because I need you to understand this completely. There's too much riding on this for mistakes. Don't let me down."
"I won't," I say, and I mean it. "You have my word."
I watch as he rises and walks toward the door. I hear soft footsteps outside and then a brief flash of his wife's face as she smiles and wraps her arms around him when he exits. Then the door is shut and I'm alone with the crackling fire and my thoughts.
Vivika Rozhkova may prove to be one of the biggest challenges of my life, but I'm not backing away from it. Each member of this family has had their rite of passage, the moment when they had to choose family loyalty over conscience, and this will test me.
I rise and down the vodka as I pace in front of the fire. The first step will be to inform her of why she's here and what my plan is. Then depending on her response, we can proceed to training, or maybe it will take convincing.
Either way, I have a short time to work a small miracle.
And I'm not God.
4
VIVIKA
The ceiling above me swirls in patterns that my eyes trace over and over while I lie here staring at it. I don't understand what's happening to me or why I'm here, and I don't like how these zip ties dig into my wrists and feel like they're cutting my hands off.
