“You’re not going to lose her.” I pull her against my chest and hold her tight, with one hand cradling the back of her head. “I made her a promise. I meant every word.”
“What do we do?”
I reach for my phone and dial Alexei’s number. He answers on the second ring.
I grip the back of her neck, gentle but absolute, and make the call.
“We’ve got a problem,” I tell him. “Bogdan knows about the train.”
26
Daria
Pyotr’s voice sounds far away, like he’s speaking underwater.
I’m standing in the kitchen where he left me, staring at the phone on the counter. Bogdan’s face is frozen on the cracked screen. That smirk. Those eyes. The train station platform stretching out behind him like a threat.
He was there.
While I held Kira and promised her everything would be okay. While Pyotr gave her his spy coin and made her a pinky promise, Bogdan was there, too, close enough to photograph my daughter’s face pressed against the glass.
Pyotr is pacing near the window with his phone glued to his ear. “Alexei, listen to me. He was at the platform. He has photos. We need to know if he has people on that train.”
I can’t hear Alexei’s response. I can only watch Pyotr’s face for any sign that my worst fears are about to come true.
“How far out?” Pyotr asks. A pause, followed by, “Good. Keep me posted.”
He ends the call and turns to me.
“The train is forty minutes from Moscow,” he tells me. “Alexei’s men swept every car an hour ago and found no one suspicious on board.”
“But Bogdan was at the station. He could have?—”
“He watched from a distance like a fucking coward and made a video. That’s all he did.” Pyotr stalks across the kitchen, grabs me by the shoulders, and hauls me against his chest. “If he had people on that train, he wouldn’t have sent it to you. He would have just taken her.”
The logic makes sense, but I can’t stop picturing the image of Kira’s small face at the window, unaware that her father is watching.
“I did this,” I sob. “I put her on that train. I handed her over and smiled and told her to be brave, and he was right there the whole time.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“She asked me to pinky promise,” I snap. “She asked me to promise I’d see her soon, and I did, and Bogdan was standing there recording the whole thing.”
“He’s going to use this,” I continue. “He’ll take everything he has to the custody judge and say I sent our daughter away with dangerous criminals. He’ll say?—”
“He won’t get the chance.”
“You don’t know that. You don’t know what he’s capable of.”
“I know exactly what he’s capable of.” Pyotr’s voice is hard. “I also know what I’m capable of. And Alexei. And every man on that train and the ones waiting for it to arrive in Moscow.” He pulls out his phone and shows me a map with a blinking dot moving steadily eastward. “The moment the train enters the station, Kira will be transferred to an armored car and taken straight to the family compound. She won’t be exposed for more than sixty seconds.”
“He knew about the train,” I whisper. “He knew the platform, the timing, everything. How?”
“He’s been watching the building for weeks. His people would have seen Alexei arrive yesterday. They would have followed us to the station and reported back.” Pyotr moves to the counter and picks up the phone with Bogdan’s frozen face still on the screen. “This video is a tantrum. He’s angry that you sent Kira somewhere he can’t easily reach, so he’s trying to scare you into bringing her back.”
“It’s working.”
“Are you going to call Alexei and demand he put her on the next train home?”
