You know what? That is none of my business.
“Roman is a handful, no?” Maksim continued. “A silent, brooding handful. If it’s any consolation, he has always talked this little, sharing nothing of himself. When we were children, quiet was rewarded. The opposite was . . . not.”
I didn’t have time to puzzle at his words before Sevastyan growled, “Zatknis’ na hui!” Shut the f**k up! Clearly about to go ballistic, he told me, “Leave now! Or I will carry you to our room.”
When I told Maksim, “It was a pleasure to meet you,” he flashed me a look of disappointment, as if he’d thought I would fight more. “I’ll be upstairs,” I said. A lie, to put with Sevastyan’s.
I won’t settle. I’m going to keep my eyes on the horizon.
In our room, I packed a messenger bag with my new passport, my cherished letter from Paxán, and some cash. I grabbed my wrap coat, my cell phone, and nothing else.
On my way out, I flipped off the bedroom camera. ABC, baby.
Do svidaniya, Siberian.
Chapter 41
“Your flight is about to board,” a French security guard told me as he inspected my ticket and fake passport.
In a matching fake accent, I said, “I’m surprisingly quick.” Especially if properly motivated.
An hour ago, I’d used the maid’s entrance to slip out of the town house, sneaked past the groaning guard, then hailed a cab. On the way to the airport, I’d used my phone to buy an economy ticket to Nebraska.
I’d chosen my flight based on one criterion. It departed, like, now. I just had to hope that this passport would work.
I stifled a sigh of relief when the man handed it back. “Mademoiselle, you’ll have to run to make your plane.”
“Thanks!” I called over my shoulder. Run? In heels and a demi-cup bra? Beautiful. My heels clicked along, boobs bouncing—to the delight of a pair of males I passed. This is why I preferred to wear minimizers!
As I rushed down the concourse, I called Jess.
She answered on the first ring. “How’d the splinterectomy go?”
“I left him to die on the table.” I darted glances around me, wondering how much time I had before Sevastyan noticed I was gone. “I’m at the airport right now.” Leaving him was for the best. I needed to go home, to see my friends and my mom. To sort through everything that had happened to me. To get back to my old self.
“He’ll come after you?”
“You have no idea—”
A text chimed on my phone. With a grimace, I read it.
Get your ass back here or I will whip it raw
“Shit, Jess! He knows I’m gone. He’s going to assume I came here and follow me.” To catch me and bring me back.
How had I gotten myself into this monumental mess? This had all started because I’d wanted to find my biological parents. Both were dead, and now I was saddled with a fortune that was still in the rinse cycle—along with a lying, stalker ex-boyfriend, who also happened to be an assassin.
Fuck!
“You’ve got a good head start on him, right?” Jess said. “And there’s got to be security everywhere.”
“If I can get away now, do you think we could hide out at your parents’ lake cabin for a couple of weeks?” Months? Years?
“Hide out? Nat, what did he do to you?!” She sounded on the verge of skull-fucking something.
“Nothing like you’re imagining. But he isn’t who I thought he was.”
“Skeletons in the closet?”