"You had an assistant before?" Mattie asked.
"Not on this island."
They clinked their glasses together and drank. The cocktail burned pleasantly going down, spreading warmth through Mattie's chest.
She was going to be okay. For the first time since arriving on this island, she actually believed it.
"I need to go tell people," she said, setting down her empty glass. "Anil, Nuri, my roommates. They need to know I'm leaving."
"I'll come with you," Dimitri offered.
Mattie opened her mouth to say that she could handle it herself, that she didn't need an escort just to deliver some news. But then she remembered Tarik's face, the cold cruelty in his eyes, and she remembered the long corridors of the staff section of the hotel, and all the dark corners where anyone could be waiting.
Better a careful coward than a dead fool.
"Let's go," she said. "The sooner I say my goodbyes, the sooner I can be out of here."
Dimitri rose to his feet and tucked his notebook and tablet into his bag.
"Go." Petrov waved them off with his vodka glass. "I will stay here and finish my drink. Maybe two drinks. It has been a long day."
Mattie paused to say goodbye to Anil first.
"Congratulations." He offered her his hand. "And don't be a stranger. Come with your new bosses for a drink. It's on the house."
"I will." She shook his hand and then leaned to kiss his cheek. "Thank you. And don't forget about Nadia."
"I won't."
"Good night, Anil."
When she and Dimitri stepped into the corridor that led deeper into the hotel complex, Mattie instinctively gravitated closer to him, but it wasn't because of the attraction. She wished it were. It was fear.
He didn't seem to mind, lifting his arm to wrap it around her shoulders, but then rethinking his move and tucking his hand into his pocket. "Just a little longer," he muttered.
She knew what he meant. Soon, they wouldn't need to pretend to be only acquaintances. In the lab, they could hold hands and kiss and do whatever they wanted as long as they didn't cross the line of propriety.
"Where to first?" Dimitri asked.
"Nuri, the head of housekeeping. I need to tell her that I was reassigned."
"Is she the one who's been giving your roommate a hard time?"
Mattie nodded. "Yeah. Nuri has been here for decades and thinks that she's acquired ownership rights."
"The slave who became king," Dimitri said.
"Something like that." Mattie sighed. "I feel bad about leaving them, but it's not as if I'm any help to them, and with Tarik out there, I really shouldn't stay where he can find me."
Dimitri threw caution to the wind, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her close for a moment. "You can't help anyone if you're not safe yourself."
They found Nuri in her office.
She looked up as they entered, her expression shifting from neutral to suspicious. "What do you want?" she asked Mattie, ignoring Dimitri entirely.
"I'm being transferred to the laboratory," Mattie said. "I'm going to be working as an assistant to the scientists there."
Nuri's eyebrows rose. "Says who?"
