then, no?”
“Maya, you mean?”
“Whatever her name is—the Kozlov woman, Konstantin. Stop with your word games.”
“She’s okay.”
Vadim made another one of those noises. “Kolya will be pleased, I’m sure.”
“I would think—”
“For now,” Vadim added before Konstantin could finish. “He forgets his place; the place I gave him.”
Konstantin said nothing.
Vadim continued on anyway, asking, “And what of the Albanian?”
“He’s dead.”
“Shame,” the man on the other end of the call murmured. “That’s going to be a problem.”
Vadim hung up the call before Konstantin could finish. It took another five minutes of driving in a tense, uncomfortable silence before Konstantin started to relax a little. He’d been holding onto the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles were white, and his muscles strained against the sleeve of his dress shirt.
“You lied to him,” Maya said softly. “About Tomor.”
Konstantin nodded but never looked away from the road. “I did.”
“Why?”
“You’re not the only one with a complex where Kolya is concerned. I told you that. He’s good at a lot of things, my brother, and this is definitely one of those.”
It had to be more than that, though.
Had to be.
She heard it in his tone and saw it on his face when he spoke to his father. A lot like she saw and heard it from Kolya when he had to talk about the man.
“You and Kolya … you have a strange relationship with your father, don’t you?” she asked.
Konstantin took a second. His reply wasn’t particularly ground-breaking.
“You could say that,” he murmured.
And then, all Maya saw was a flash of black in her mirror before Konstantin cussed, cut the wheel sharply, and realized too late that he hadn’t reacted quickly enough. The car sliding against the side of theirs at high speeds while Konstantin tried to swerve to avoid the accident was more than enough force to send them rolling as the wheels hit gravel.
She could hear something else, too. Even over the crunch of metal and the shattering of glass. Even over her rushing blood in her ears and the racing of her heart. Everything slowed in her vision and she could hear it.
The pop, pop, pop.
Gunshots.
8.
“OUCH.”
Maya’s quiet exclamation was followed by her hiss when the doctor patted her cheek with an alcohol-soaked cotton ball. In her lap, Sumerki—already a tense ball of fur like a spring ready to come uncoiled—growled under his breath. He was getting better at the whole growling thing. At least, now he didn’t sound so squeaky.
It was still kind of cute.
“Sorry,” the doctor muttered, being extra gentle with his next swipe at the scratches on her cheek, “but I wouldn’t want to risk these getting infected if I didn’t clean them.”
Maya nodded. “I understand. Thank you.”
The man smiled kindly. “Either way, I’ll be careful. Wouldn’t want your puppy to bite me.” His joke made Maya laugh, and she petted Sumerki just to try and ease some of his tension. “Or your other … friend,” the doctor added.
He couldn’t see Konstantin, what with his back being turned to the Russian on the other side of the room, but Maya could see him just fine over the doctor’s shoulder. He’d needed attending to first when they’d finally arrived at the clinic after being pulled out of the wrecked car by men Konstantin called. After all, he’d had a bullet graze his shoulder, and according to the doctor, a broken rib.
One wouldn’t guess that was the case by looking at Konstantin. Other than the bloodstain on the sleeve of his shirt, he looked perfectly fine leaning against the far wall of the room. With his arms folded over his chest and his gaze trained firmly on Maya and the doctor, he seemed cool and calm.
Strangely so, really.
No one would think by Konstantin’s easy posture and unbothered demeanor that just one hour before they had been run off the road, and shot at before their unknown attacker sped away to leave them to save themselves.
Maya, on the other hand, was still shaking. The doctor had suggested a Valium to calm her, but she’d refused. She’d almost vomited all over the shoes of the man who’d pulled her out of the wreckage of the car. She still didn’t think she would be able to look the guy in the eyes when she left the room, considering he and the other man who’d come to help them were still keeping guard outside the office.
“He’s not so much a friend as … well, not a friend,” Maya said.
Konstantin’s lips twitched like he was fighting a smile