Her brows pinch. "Queens? I can't do Queens."
I blink, irritation rolling over my skin, but I swallow it before locking my eyes back with her golden gaze and through gritted teeth I ask, "Why?"
"King," she says, like it's obvious. "He's probably pissed on the floor by now. I already left him longer than I said I would, and if I don't show up soon, he's going to think I abandoned him."
I stare at her for a beat. "King? You can't go to Queens because of the King?"
"No, not the King. His name is King," she shakes her head in amusement, her dimples peaking out on her face again. "My dog, Aleksandr. My pitbull. He's emotionally fragile and he eats my mail when he's mad, remember Nadia got him for me for Christmas like four years ago?"
I sigh through my nose, jaw ticking. Of course she named the pure breed pitbull I got her for protection King, and of fucking course Nadia took credit for the Christmas present I got Lily. Now, how did this dog turn into an emotionally fragile, non-killing machine? I have no fucking clue.
I hear the conference door click open and look over my shoulder to see Nikolai is already ready in a long black coat, eyes scanning the hallway before landing on us. "Gwen is meeting us there with the kids. Ready Lil?"
"She is," I say before she can launch into another tangent. "She's going to meet you on 72nd street going up on the Two line."
"But King—" she starts again.
"I'll get your dog," I cut in, rubbing my hand over my face, because the apartment Lily insisted on is all the way in fucking Harlem, which is completely out of my way to the safe house.
She blinks at me in surprise. "You'd do that?"
"Alek-" Nikolia starts, and I know he is going to say that right now we have no time to get a dog before everyone needs to get to the safe house, but I cut him off.
"Just give me an extra fifteen minutes to get to the safe house before you go into lock down."
"His leash is on the hook to the right of the door, his collar is in the dryer, and he loves his stuffed bloody knife from Halloween," she says. Digging into her pocket, she places a jangly ring of keys with a key chain that sayswhere have you been locaon it, a whistle, and a rainbow tassel in my palm without question.
I smirk down at the display of keys and swallow the urge to hand them back and tell her that I already have a copy, stashed in the desk drawer of my office here, a copy in my car, and a copy in my house…for emergencies.
She doesn't need to know that right now. What matters is getting her the hell out of here.
Her fingers linger on mine for a second longer than necessary before she nods and turns toward Nikolai.
"Come on," she says, "the Two train is like never in my favor."
Nikolia taps my back firmly as he passes, following her to the elevator with a smile on his smug viking-like face and a shake of his head.
I look up to see Lily entering the elevator, and turning around to look at me with a shaky smile.
"Aleksandr," she calls back, and my eyes lock with hers. My name on her lips makes me weak even after all this time.
"Yeah?"
"Be safe."
4
LILY
"You've gotto be fucking kidding me," Nadia hisses into her phone in the middle of the living room. "?????? ????? ?? ?? ?????, ??? ?? ???? ???????" She leans into her hip, eyes narrowing on the space in front of her shaking her head violently. "? ???? ???? ?????? ? ????????? ??????? — ?? ???? ??????? ?????????."
I smile to myself, adjusting my absurdly heavy tote bag full of books from one shoulder to the other. My Russian isn't perfect—I chose to study sign language in high school and Italian in college—but I'm pretty sure Nadia just said something along the lines ofI've killed stronger men for less. And that's the PG version.
She storms off toward the right wing of the house, leaving me standing in the foyer of what can only be described as a mansion—definitely not what I expected for a safe house. I'd pictured something grimy and half-abandoned, maybe with duct-taped windows and the smell of boiled hot dog water.
But this place? "Nice" doesn't begin to cover it.
It reminds me of the apartment the Petrov siblings gave me for college. I told Nadia and Nik that a penthouse with three bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, grey granite countertops, a gas stove, weekly maid service, and stainless steel everything was completely over the top—but the second they told me to take it up with Aleksandr, I suddenly had a bodyguard too until up to a year ago.
