21
Polina
I’ve done harder things than this. I remind myself of that on the drive over.
I’ve delivered death notifications to parents. Held a man’s liver together with my bare hands for six minutes while we waited for blood. Sat across from Dmitri at Christmas dinner and smiled through his questions like I didn’t know exactly why he was asking them.
None of it felt like this.
Ruslan drives. Lev sits in the passenger seat with his eyes on the window and his hands still in his lap. I’m in the back with my coat buttoned to the throat and my mother’s bracelet turning around my wrist.
My mother wore this bracelet the day she died. She married into the wrong name, learned too much, and became a problem easier to eliminate than manage.
A liability.
What I’ve feared becoming my entire adult life may be exactly what I just made myself.
The drive takes thirty-four minutes, and I count every single one of them.
The compound gates are already open when we arrive. Ruslan pulls away the second Lev and I step out. He knows he’s not welcome here, and he knows Lev will find him if he needs to.
A man I don’t recognize stands at the main entrance. Another falls in ahead of us and leads us down the east corridor without a word.
Whenever I’ve been here for a family obligation I couldn’t avoid, I stayed on the edges. The same photographs line the wall, with a few new ones now that everyone seems determined to marry and reproduce on schedule. I know which frame holds my parents without looking.
Today, I don’t.
The office door is already open when we get there. Dmitri stands behind his desk. Alexei sits to his left with his forearms on his knees, scowling like he’s one word away from lunging. Tony stands near the back wall with a tablet in his hand, already looking at home here. Boris is on the far side of the room, planted between the exit and whoever Dmitri has decided needs containing today.
That would be us.
Dmitri looks at me first. Not Lev. Me.
“Sit down,” he orders.
I lift my chin, at least pretending not to be intimidated. “I’d rather stand.”
He doesn’t argue, which shocks the hell out of me. His attention slides to Lev, and I hold my breath, waiting for a reaction.
Lev gives him a slow nod, like he’s greeting a man at a business meeting instead of standing in the middle of enemy territory with four people who want him dead.
Dmitri is the first to speak. “Tell me why you’re in my office and why I shouldn’t shoot you where you stand.”
Lev draws in a breath and squares his shoulders. “I’m here because your cousin is in danger.”
Alexei pushes up from his chair like he can’t stay seated another second. “Don’t say that like you give a damn.”
Boris slides one step closer to the door, keeping the exit boxed in without making a show of it.
“Sit,” Dmitri states without looking at Alexei.
“Dmitri—”
“I said sit.”
Alexei sinks back down, but he keeps leaning forward with his forearms on his knees like he’s ready to launch.
Dmitri’s eyes stay on Lev. “You’d better start elaborating.”
