Page 18 of The Harbinger

“Eto ne gulag,”Sacha said as I took a deep breath and climbed to my feet.

Sacha released him, and straightened his suit jacket, then adjusted the silver cufflinks at his wrists.

“You’ll ride with me.” Sacha placed his palm on the small of my back and ushered me to the middle vehicle in the motorcade. I glanced down at my damaged hands and flicked away a rock with a wince.

Who was this man?

Why was he so important that he required so many bodyguards?

What did I get myself into?

I glanced back at Ivan, who shot me a cold glare while rubbing his wrist close to his chest.

When we’d first met in the alleyway, I’d gotten the feeling that he wasn’t one to be trifled with, and now I’d embarrassed him in front of the entire security team with his boss publicly reprimanding him. If he wasn’t my enemy before, he certainly was now.

“Don’t worry about him.”

Sacha climbed into the backseat where a bodyguard waited, holding open the door, and slid across the bench seats. “I wasn’t worried about him until now,” I said, sliding in after him.

Of course, that was a lie.

Of all the men surrounding Sacha, Ivan scared me the most. He seemed reckless and full of rage—his permanent scowl could tell a thousand stories.

The door shut after I’d situated myself inside and moved to buckle my seatbelt when Sacha placed his hand on mine. “If we need to exit quickly, it’s best you don’t have it on.”

“It takes two seconds to press the button to release it.”

“Those two seconds could save or end your life.” He sat back in his seat, and I let go of the belt, his warning smacking me as if we were entering a war-torn country. Dmitri slipped into the front passenger’s seat and looked back at us for a slight moment, the driver ready with his hands on the steering wheel.

“What’s my role here?” I glanced out of his window as the vehicles took off in a procession. I sat on my hands, denying my body the urge to tic. “Am I taking the place of the girl that was with them?”

“Do youwantto take her place,milaya?”Sacha jutted his chin in the air and unbuttoned his suit jacket.

I swallowed and pinched the back of my thigh, unsure I should answer the question, but did anyway with a slight shake of my head. Why did that seem like a double-edged sword?

“And what do you know of Nina?”

“Nothing.” I focused on the impeccable stitching on the leather seat before me. “I just saw them with her and figured since she didn’t return with Ivan…”

His fist clenched against his thigh, choking the words right out of my sentence.

He spread his legs and took up the surrounding space. “Tell me what you saw.”

My pulse thrummed in my ears. “I don’t know anything.”

He turned with a clenched jaw. “I didn’t ask what you knew.”

I rubbed my tightening throat—the itch crawling up my skin like termites eating their path to my brain.

One. Two. Three.

His gaze darted to my unconscious tic, then back up.

“The girl,Nina,” I stammered, “She um…” I closed my eyes, envisioning the gas station and all that transpired. “She got out of the car and walked inside the station.” I glanced at him. “The guys waited for a while, but Ivan went in for her when she never came out. That’s when I asked Vlad for some money.”

“What else?” he asked when I looked out the window.

“Nothing.” I shook my head and winced when I pressed my cut palm on my jeans. “He told me to leave, and I did. But Ivan had ‘other plans.’” I raised my fingers and used them for air quotes. “And that’s how I ended up here, transported to a new country like chattel.”

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