Page 288 of Sexting His Assistant

Then he pulls back and helps me into the SUV beside Misha. Luka climbs in after me.

The door slams.

Sergei shouts at the driver.

The vehicle tears out of the warehouse yard.

I take Misha’s cold hand in both of mine.

Luka sits beside me, one arm around my shoulders, his other hand pressing fresh gauze against Misha’s wound.

Nobody speaks for a few seconds.

Then Luka says, quietly enough that only I hear, “I have you.”

I lean into him, still shaking. “I know.”

And for the first time all night, despite the blood, despite Meredith escaping, despite Misha fighting for every breath beside us, I believe him.

EPILOGUE

LUKA

Two weeks later, I’m in my study going through Meredith’s file again, even though there is nothing new in it.

That’s the problem. There’s enough in it.

Access logs. Deleted passes. Calendar edits. Calls routed through office extensions that should have been inactive. Payments through companies that only existed on paper. Notes about my movements, my meetings, my security rotations, and, later, Nina’s routine.

Meredith had been close to everything because I had let her be close.

I close the file and push it away.

I mistook silence for loyalty.

I mistook competence for devotion.

And Nina paid for it.

My hand tightens around the glass.

The study door opens without a knock.

Misha walks in slowly, one hand braced against the doorframe, wearing loose black sweatpants and a grey shirt that hangs badly on him because he has lost weight in two weeks. His face still carries fading bruises. His ribs are wrapped. His left shoulder is stiff. He moves like every step personally offends him.

Alina is beside him, one hand hovering near his arm, not touching unless he actually needs it, which he does and refuses to admit.

“You look like shit,” I say.

Misha exhales through his nose. “Good morning to you too.”

“It is afternoon.”

“Then I’m ahead of schedule.”

Alina looks between us, nervous the way she always is when she finds herself within ten feet of me.

It’s awkward.