Long enough for dawn to press pale light through the narrow gap in the office curtains and for my muscles to go still. Long enough for me to admit that the thought of anyone else touching her made my blood run cold. When she finally stirred against my chest, her lashes fluttering, her fingers curled lightly into my shirt, she looked soft. Young. Too untouched for this world.
“Oh,” she whispered. “I… fell asleep.”
“You did.” My voice was low, raspier than I intended. “You needed it.”
A faint blush warmed her cheeks. She pushed herself upright, smoothing her hair, avoiding my eyes for a moment.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured.
“For what?”
“For collapsing on you.”
“Don’t worry about it.” I stood up, offering her a hand, and she took it, realizing she was still naked. I turned aroundand got her sweater, and she quickly threw it on, then began carrying the rest of her clothes in her arms.
“Timofey?” she asked.
“He left before sunrise. He was fine. Feeling much better.”
Her shoulders loosened a little, tension easing. “Good.”
Sunlight was beginning to filter in through the windows, and my office looked alive once again, reminding me of the request she had made last night.
“Do you still want to do the investigation about your kidnapping?” I asked her as I fired up my laptop.
“Yes,” she nodded. “I need to know. Where do we start?”
I picked up my laptop with one hand and sat at the opposite side of the table, pulling out a chair for Ilana. She eased into it, tucking her hair behind her ear in a nervous little gesture. Her scent, clean, soft, and faintly floral, curled around me like smoke.
“We start,” I said, “with everything you remember.”
She nodded slowly.
“I remember that they spoke Russian,” she said. “But not Moscow Russian. Their accents were… rougher. Colder. South, maybe, or farther east.”
I glanced at her sharply, not realizing that she was so perceptive.
“And they called each other by nicknames, so I did not catch their real names at all. I don’t even remember their faces properly because they were mostly always in hoods except for the two men who tried to take me again and got killed.” Her jaw trembled as she spoke about it, but she hid it well.
I nodded and opened a file on the laptop that listed faces, dossiers, and symbols tied to smaller Russian crews operating in the states.
“Anything looks familiar?”
She leaned closer, her shoulder brushing mine unintentionally.
Her brows knitted. “Not yet. But… I wasn’t exactly fully conscious when they took me, so it is hard for me to remember anything anyway.”
“Did they give you a reason for kidnapping?”
“My brothers,” Ilana said quickly. “According to them, it had something to do with my brothers. I think they were exacting revenge on my brothers by kidnapping me.”
“Tell me about your brothers.”
She stilled, then looked down at her hands.
“They’re good people,” she whispered. “Hardworking. They have built everything they have today from nothing, and I have seen them work for it.”
A small, fond smile tugged at her lips. She clearly loved them.
