“Nadia speaking.”
He hisses, curses. “God damn it, Nadia, what are you doing? Why are you with my wife?”
He sounds worried.Good.
“Why aren’t you answering my calls?”
“You know why.”
“Because you betrayed me?”
“Your husband is an expensive mark. You’re not getting the job done. Someone else will. Might as well be me. I’m doing you a favor.”
“Really? Are you?”
“Yes.”
“Do not kill him.” I enunciate each word precisely. “Do you understand?”
“This is business, Nadia. You know this is how it works. Or you should.”
“No, it’s not. This ispersonal. You claim to be my friend. So don’t kill my husband. I need to talk to him. I need toknow—”
“Isn’t it enough to know he’s bad? That he’s like us but worse?”
A breathy silence. “We don’t know anything, not for sure,” I manage. Is Brian there? Did he hear what Ian said?
“I know enough. Go home. Leave Victoria be.”
“Ian, listen to me!” I let my voice rise, the volume, the pitch. “If you kill him—” I look around desperately, but the only option is right in front of me. Victoria. “If you kill him, if you killmyhusband, I’ll kill your wife.”
Ian laughs. “No, you won’t. She didn’t do anything wrong. You’re a good person in your own fucked-up way, Nadia. You won’t hurt her.”
“I will.” I hand Victoria the phone, motion for her to hold it up. I pull my gun out, pull the slide back so it makes the dramatic clicking noise appropriate for Hollywood drama. “I swear to god, Ian. I’ll shoot her right now, while you listen.”
A beat of silence. When he speaks, his tone is lower, stoic. “She knows what I am. She accepted the risk, being with me. My job is the most important thing, and she’s aware of that too. Kill her if you must, but know this—if you do, I’ll kill your husband. And then I’m coming for you next.” And with that, he hangs up.
Victoria and I are left staring at each other, wide-eyed.
“That motherfucker,” she hisses. “On second thought, kill him for me, will you?”
Chapter Forty-Six
The phone has long gonesilent.
Victoria and I stand three feet from each other, staring at the black screen, at a loss as to what to do next. My husband is about to be killed. If this were a game of chess, the board would be sideways, the pieces askew, maybe a third set of queens and pawns thrown in there. No obvious move forward, no way to retreat.
And worse, Ian told me to kill his wife. The strong, passionate woman across from me who is intelligent enough to realize when something is off with her husband.
This is the same Ian who came all the way to Texas to join me for a run and warn me about hitting the freaking glass ceiling. The man who promised to help, to make the transition of Brian’s death easier on me, on my family.
Like it was no big deal, just another function of the job, he told me to off his wife. The mother of his daughter. Like she’s utterly replaceable.
“I can’t believe he told me to kill you,” I say.
Here I am, trying to save my husband, who I’m not even sure really loves me—I just, at a minimum, need to know who he is, whyhe’s doing this. I needanswers. Meanwhile, Ian faces the slightest amount of pressure from a situation he created himself, and he’s okay with me putting a bullet through Victoria.
I’m not the monster.
