Page 105 of The Game

“I don’t know.”

His eyes narrow. “You called him.”

“I rang Janus Phillips, who’s a friend of Adam Miller’s. I didn’t get Janus, I got him. He told me to put you on. I have no idea who he is.”

Konstantin clicks his fingers, and the sidekick returns to the table.

“Don’t worry, Anna. We will go after him. Find out all known associates of Janus Phillips. If they breathed next to him, I want to know about it.”

Fuck. I trust this Fabian guy knows what he’s doing. Well, if Konstantin can bluff, maybe I can bluff, too. Adam said Fabian could hack into anywhere, didn’t he?

I study Konstantin for a bit. “I hope your technology guys are excellent, Konstantin. I’d make very sure your secrets are out of reach.”

His mouth tightens. My eyes flick toward Pietr, whose head is down. When he raises his head, his face is white. Whoa, what’s on their system? Something about Pietr?

“Konstantin, that’s …” Pietr starts.

“Silence!”

“What the hell is going on?” Pietr asks.

“Some person has taken down our computers. They are trying to blackmail us.”

He clicks his fingers at me. “Call him back.”

How much leverage do I have here? Possibly very little. I pull out my phone and press Janus’s contact details.

“Anna?” Janus says.

“Konstantin wants to talk to whoever he was talking to before.”

“Tell him he’ll call him back.”

We sit for a tense few minutes. Then Konstantin’s phone rings on the table.

“How does this snake have this number?” he growls, picking it up andputting it against his ear. “I will tell you what your friend has been given, if you take out of my systems whatever it is you have put in there,” he grits out through clenched teeth, eyes flicking over me for a second.

Then he slams his hand on the tablecloth. “You don’t threaten me, you worm. You will die quietly one night …” he starts, and then he takes his phone away from his ear. “He hung up on me.”

“Well, gentlemen,” I say, with a fake smile, “this has been fun, but I think we have a tournament to run today before I go back to the States.”

Pietr snorts. “You don’t think you’re just going to walk out of here, do you?”

I frown at him. “What else would I do?”

“Stay here in Russia where you belong!”

“I’m competing in the Australian Open in a few weeks, Pietr.” I glance down at my watch, and my hand is shaking when I look at it.

Pietr’s face goes red, and Konstantin chuckles. Then his hard eyes turn toward me, narrowing.

“You may think you have won this round, little one, but I will make sure you never escape.”

39

ANNA

When I board the plane that evening, the crew are in a celebratory mood given it’s so close to Christmas, and one of them hands me a pryanik in a little paper bag. When I pop it in my mouth, the spice and ginger takes me right back to my grandmother’s house, and for a second it makes my eyes sting. As I’m putting my hand luggage into the overhead locker, a text lands in my phone from Mila:

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