had made her some sleeping medication, which had apparently worked.
It had worked. Not apparently.
It had.
My heels slowed down, listening to my subconscious before I did. At her questioning look, I waved her ahead. “I’m going to speak to Konstantin.”
Understanding sparked in her eyes but she disappeared, followed by her husband and the rest of the household. The door clipped shut softly.
I turned to face Konstantin. He hadn’t moved from his position, watching me with blazing eyes. Still and intense, waiting and ready.
I swallowed, trying to control the reaction my body had whenever Konstantin looked at me like that. Hell, whenever he looked at me at all.
“Elena.” His voice was low and dangerous, but curious. “Do you need something?”
I moved towards the desk, his eyes never straying from me. “I need to tell you something.” I was close enough to him that he could reach out and touch me.
“What is it?” Concern darkened his features.
With movements that did not match his expression, Konstantin reached out and gently held my hips. The touch sent heat flushing through me.
“I...” I caught the sound of voices in the hallway. Danika’s bright tone was the loudest, followed by Roman’s rough snarl.
“Lyubimaya?” he prompted.
I pressed my hand to his, feeling the rough skin beneath mine. The words crossroad and satisfaction beamed up at me.
“The key.”
Konstantin’s body stilled. “The key,” he repeated.
“I know where it is.”
“And where is that?”
I hesitated.
The last time I had gotten involved with this key, I had ended bruised and marred. Thaddeo’s furious expression was still visible in my mind’s eye, like it was a physical photo held out in front of me.
“I can be patient a little bit longer,” Konstantin murmured. “But not forever.”
I looked down at his shoulder. Through the suit I couldn’t see the list of names, but I knew they were there. Permanently there.
“It’s in him,” I breathed.
His brow furrowed. “In him, lyubimaya? What do you mean?”
I met his eyes. “The key is in Thaddeo.”
Visions flashed past of the blood, the peel of skin.
“How do you know that?” he asked, squeezing my hips gently.
I grimaced. “Who do you think put it in him?”
They had not buried Thaddeo’s body very deep. It had been a job of a bratok so the authorities didn’t find it. He had been buried in an unmarked grave, no funeral or wake to mourn his absence.
It was what he deserved.
Night had fallen, thickening the shadows of the woods. Light came from the huge lamps Konstantin’s men had brought to illuminate the burial site. Loose dirt was kicked away, and then his men went to work with shovels.
Konstantin and I stood on the edge of the site, avoiding the spray of dirt. His hand rested on my back, his jaw tense.
“It unlocks a safe in the bank,” I said. Cold air brushed against my skin, the wintry kiss to it reminding me November had come and December was on her way.
“We know, thank you.” Konstantin turned his head down to me. The light only brightened half of his face, causing his features to warp and darken, but no darkness could hide the hunger in his eyes when he looked down at me.
I felt a shiver ripple through me but kept my voice level, “I’ll need to a borrow a knife. To get the key out.”
“Where in his body is it located?”
“You’ll see.”
He leaned closer to me. My heart skipped a beat. “Have you ever been in the safe?”
I tried to keep my expression clear as the memories flashed past. The pain began to throb in my arm, like Thaddeo’s ghostly hand was still gripping it. “Once,” I murmured. “I’ve been once.”
Konstantin’s eyes searched my face, catching something. He opened his mouth to say something when one of his men yelled out, “Found him!”
We both turned to see a pair of bratok roughly yanking Thaddeo’s body out of the hole and onto the ground. The bugs and deterioration had begun to eat away at him, wrinkling his flesh and skin, but you could see his face, make out his features.
“Where do you want him?”
It took me a second to realize the men were talking to me.
“There is fine.” I turned to Konstantin. “May I...”
Konstantin passed me a blade, the razor catching in the lamp’s light. It was heavy in my grip, but not unfamiliar.
Thaddeo had been very specific about where he had wanted the key to be kept. He had even gone so far as to circle the place in blue pen, so I knew exactly where