“Deal with him, will you?” I insist, and Ilya rolls his shoulders back as he cracks his knuckles.
“With pleasure.”
And, as he steps in through the door, I continue towards the exit, not listening to the first blow as it lands with a sickening thud against flesh. We can make an example of Ivan, but that’s not going to undo the fact that Vinski already has something on me.
And that if I don’t do something to get it under control, everything I’ve worked for could be snatched out right from underneath me.
7
CARA
I smoothdown my hair quickly as the older woman finishes the dishes, trying to make myself look as put-together and trustworthy as possible. I’m about to ask her for a huge favor, after all, and I need to make certain that I give myself a fighting chance of her actually saying yes.
I tossed and turned all night, trying to figure out what it was I needed to do about this situation with Alex. And, eventually, I came to the conclusion that my sister was right—that I need to get out of here, not just for my safety, but for Nina’s.
But I can’t just pack up our stuff and take off in the middle of the night, no matter how tempting that might be. That’ll just cause suspicion, and the last thing I want is to give this a man reason to come looking for me when all is said and done. No, I’m going to hand in my notice as though this is just any other normal job. Because, as far as anyone knows, that’s still exactly what I see it as.
“Marsha?”
The woman looks up and nods to me in greeting as she dries her hands. I know she’s the one who runs this household. I’ve already run into her once, when she came to the kitchen to make sure we had enough food. She seems pretty no-nonsense, and I figure the best course of action is to just come out with whatever is on my mind once and for all.
“Cara,” she replies. “The new nanny, aren’t you?”
I nod. “Yeah, I… I was actually hoping I could talk to you about that,” I reply, offering her a broad smile in the hopes of couching some of what I’m about to say next. “There’s been a... a chance of circumstances.”
She leans back against the counter, not saying a word, but nodding her head at me to carry on. I twist my hands in front of myself, trying to dissolve some of the nervous energy that’s coursing through my system.
“Uh, yeah, my grandmother, it turns out she had a fall,” I explain quickly, running through the story that I came up with in my head and rehearsed a hundred times over before I came out to see her. “And she needs someone to move in and look after her, so I think the best thing for me and Nina would be to go live upstate with her for a while. I don’t mean to leave you like this, but you get it, it’s family, right...?”
I trail off as I wait for her to say something, but I find myself met with only the cool gaze that she’s been giving me since the moment I stepped into the room.
“So, um, do you think you would be able to let Alexei know?” I ask her. “I can stick around as long as it takes to get the new nanny, I’m sure you had so many applicants so I don’t think it will be hard to find a?—”
“No.”
I stare at her for a moment, my eyes wide. “I’m sorry, what?”
“No, you can’t leave.”
My knees tremble beneath me. This isnothow I imagined this conversation going, not by a long shot, but the way she’s looking at me, I’m getting the feeling this is not a conversation she’s particularly interested in having with me.
“But I just told you,” I attempt once more. “My grandmother had a fall, and she needs someone to?—”
“Pay someone to be there for her,” she replies bluntly. “I’m sure Pakhan Kurenko is paying you well enough for it, yes?”
I blink. “I mean, yes, he’s paying me well?—”
“Then you can send someone there to take care of her,” she replies dismissively. “You should stay. It’s only right.”
She pats a loose strand of hair back into the gray-streaked bun at the back of her head. She is not speaking cruelly, that’s not quite it – she is speaking as though there is no conversation to be had here at all, and it is entirely throwing me off. I thought that she would understand, that she would see where I was coming from at once and give me what I was asking for, but instead, she’s coming at me as though I’m being ridiculous for even mentioning the possibility of such a thing.
“I don’t think you’re hearing me,” I tell her, gritting my teeth slightly as I remind myself of the importance of this. “I have to go. You’ll just have to tell Alexei that?—”
“He will not take the news well.” She speaks calmly, but her voice is laced with a warning, a warning that sends a shiver down my spine, a warning that I’m clearly meant to heed.
“What do you mean?”
“Pakhan Kurenko likes things in order,” she explains, pouring herself a coffee and taking a sip. “When he’s chosen someone to join his household, he does not do so lightly. And you would do well to remember that.”
