How can I hear that much worry in a single syllable? “Dimitri, is everything all right?”
“All right? No. Not even close.” He must scratch his hand over his face, I hear the rub of the scruff.
“What’s wrong?”
“Tell me again that Ryker can be trusted.”
“What? Of course.”
“Sasha, she’s delicate Win. So incredibly intelligent, but so fragile. It was supposed to be Katarina. She’s strong. Smart.”
“I know.”
“How can you?” I hear the catch in his voice. “How will you? She’s gone and for all I know he’s already fucking killed her. Left her to rot.”
Fuck. My fingers dig into my own chest where my heart should be. “Dimitri, she’s fine. Slipped away—” I’m not lying. At this exact moment she’s climbing my garden wall.
“I’m going to lose them both. I know you know what I’ve done to wrestle them from my father. Protect them. But they got here and it’s all wrong. It’s been all fucking wrong.”
His voice slurs and I know he’s been drinking. He doesn’t indulge often, but he’s been pushed to the brink.
“It’s my fault, Win. I’ve failed them.”
I sink into my desk chair, hearing my own guilt echoed back at me. It will eat Dimitri alive.
Will he try to kill me the way I’m attempting to kill his father?
Would I deserve it? That thought punches me square in the gut. “You just keep your eye on Sasha. Ryker has never hurt a woman but keep close tabs anyway.”
“I am,” he answers. “I’m trying. Your brother is keeping secrets.”
That makes two of us. “He’s a good man, he’ll keep her safe. And I…” I draw in a breath. “I’m going to find your other sister.” It won’t be difficult. She’s just down the lane.
“What?”
I should tell him more. I should tell him the whole truth. But that will have to wait for another time. Both because I can’t hurt a second person I care about tonight with the truth of my shitty actions.
But also, because I need to act quickly before Katarina slips away for good.
And once I’ve gotten her back, then I’m going to do what I should have done in the first place. Protect her.
Because while Ivan Ivonav deserves to die, the people aligned against him ought to work together.
And I should be a good friend to the one man I call friend in return.
A little voice tells me that it’s more. That I hate watching Katarina go.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Katarina
I can’t walk allthe way to Dover. So even though it’s midnight, when I hear a vehicle coming, I turn and stick out my thumb.
I know this is a dumb idea. I’ve got a million dollars in a backpack, and I’m asking a complete stranger for a ride in the dead of night.
But walking to Dover would take until sunrise at least, and at some point, Win is going to discover I’m gone.
His bait.
