“Yes, you have no emotions, got it. Now will you shut up?” Aleksei snaps and stands. His face is blotchy, and he heaves out a heavy breath. “Sorry. Stress is getting to me. I shifted Berisha’s case up by three hours and spoofed a new anesthesia log. They’ll prep him early. I’ll be in the server room if you need me.”
He folds his laptop shut and gathers his gadgets. “Don’t touch my computers.” With lips flattening, he glares at Sebastian. “I’m looking atyou.”
Then he storms out of the chamber.
“What? No ‘boom’? No ‘I’m a genius’ comment?” Sebastian hollers after him, then turns toward us. “See? Emotions are a hindrance.”
“What’s gotten into him?” Sofia frowns. “And where’s Ren?”
“He said he’s chasing something down,” I reply.
“Something’s going on with Ren,” Sebastian muses, echoing my sixth sense. “He looks…off. And this is purely objective.”
I pull out my phone.
No messages from him. My last text bounced—undelivered.
Ren didn’t say much, but that’s par for the course. He seemed troubled when he stopped by my Ashbourne Heights safe house this morning. When I asked him why, he only shook his head and told me to send him the final plans.
“Anything from the Carusos or the Berishas?” Rafe asks. “Do they suspect?”
I shake my head, watching Lana walk away, shoulders slumped, the red umbrella shrinking on the screen.
She turns before getting into the car, gazing straight into the camera.
For a moment, my heart stops.
It’s like she can see me.
She grips the handle tightly. Even on the grainy footage, I can make out the dark circles under her eyes.
She looks too pale, too unsteady. She shivers.
I step toward the door, every atom in my body begging me to go to her, to draw her into my arms and kiss away the pain in her eyes.
But I don’t. Instead, I curl my hands into fists at my sides, watching her image.
So close, yet so far away.
Lana moves her lips, whispering words I can’t hear.
But I see them. I understand them.
I love you, Elias.
A pained breath scrapes out of me, invisible talons digging into my heart.
A sad smile curves her lips. She shakes her head and mouths something else.
I won’t give up.
Clutching my chest, heat sharpens behind my eyes. I throttle out a deep breath, then another, until the pain eases.
Until it’s bearable.
She presses her fingers to her lips, releasing a kiss into the wind and sleet. Then she gets in her car and disappears.
“She knows you’re watching,” Sofia murmurs.
