He leaves, and I stay long enough to finish my coffee. As I walk out, I nearly run into a woman on the street. All I see is rainbowcolored hair as she collides with me and papers as they flap from inside the gray binder she’s holding. It clatters to the ground, but she remains standing.
“Excuse me,” she says quickly and bends down to grab the binder and the few papers that flew out of it.
“No, excuse me. Let me help?—”
“No, I’ve got it. I’ve…” She pauses long enough to look at me… and I realize I know her.
It’s Marla. Marla Chekov. She’s a little thinner and her shining blue eyes have dulled over time, but it’s her, the same cat-like face and rainbow-tinted hair. Her eyes get large as she stands up.
“Viktor.” She almost whispers it like she just spotted the boogeyman. “Um. Hi.”
“Hi,” I say with a laugh. “It’s been a long time.”
She nods quickly. “At least a couple of years. We were both at that charity thing Teddy hosted?—”
“The Leukemia Ride,” I say with a nod. “Right, right. Guess it hasn’t been as long as I thought. So, how’ve you been?”
She shrugs, her arms clutching the binder securely to her chest. “Okay,” she says. “Still working for Miller and Brownston.”
“Ah, yes. The exciting world of accounting. I guess nothing ever really changes, hmm?”
“No,” she says, her friendly smile dipping slightly. “I guess it doesn’t.”
My heart still aches for her. Nikita’s love for her was like nothing I’ve ever seen. If there were a way for him to move mountains just for her happiness, he would have gladly done it. “It’s good to see you’re okay after all this time,” I say. “My offer still stands, you know. If there’s anything on earth that you need, I’m a phone call away.”
The friendly façade falters almost completely and she nods, her smile turning bitter. “Thank you,” she says. “You know, Nicki… he really loved you. For all intents and purposes, you were his brother. Half the time he talked about you, he quoted that phrase that went, ‘The blood of the covenant is’…um…”
“‘Is thicker than the water of the womb’,” I finish. “Yeah, he delighted in the fact that I’d been misquoting that for years. Nicki liked it when he knew something I didn’t.”
She nods, her smile turning gentle. “That was him, all right.” She sighs and looks around herself. “I’d better get going. I’m late for an appointment.”
“Okay. Take care.”
She walks away, and my heart dips into my stomach. I have heard that Marla has stayed single all this time, rebuffing advances like it’s a sport. It’s sad, really. Or, I don’t know, maybe it’s just a testament to her eternal loyalty to him. It’s rare to see among Bratva and their lovers. Loyalty, real loyalty, isn’t the kind of thing that comes along every day.
Still… I’d always hoped that Marla found someone. I think Nikita would have wanted that for her.
I start to walk away and I catch sight of Yanov across the street, watching her as she walks off. I thought he’d left already. He hashis phone pressed against his face, but he’s watching her and does so until she gets in her car, then he disappears in his car.
It’s an unnerving sight… but probably nothing to be concerned about. Yanov’s job is to keep tabs on us all. I suppose that doesn’t change just because your Bratva boyfriend dies.
I leave and put it out of my mind as much as I can. The truth of the whole thing is that I miss Nikita. He was the last and only person I trusted implicitly. Now, there’s no one to have my back but me. Marla is just a reminder of that.
