Page 126 of Lethal Alliance

I thought Alexei was out of hearing range. But I can see him in my peripheral vision, very still, his lone eye moving between Roman and me. His mouth tightens, and he braces himself as if he’s about to speak.

Somehow I know he’s about to take responsibility for what happened in that room, for what Orlov forced him to do.

No.

I won’t let him take the blame for Orlov’s evil.

“Alexei never hurt me.” I resist the urge to cross my fingers at the lie. I can still feel the thin lines made by Alexei’s knife. But they’re not deep. I can fix them myself. I’m never telling anyone what Vilnus Orlov made Alexei do to me.

Not ever.

It’s a promise I made myself before I ever left that cell. I won’t be the reason Alexei suffers. I know what I owe him. I won’t ever let anyone hurt him because of something I say.

Alexei tenses, his lone eye darkening. His mouth opens. I know he’s about to speak, to tell Roman the truth.

And I know that if he does, he will die here. Probably right in front of me.

“Vilnus tried to make him hurt me.” I speak before he gets a chance, forcing myself to meet Roman’s eyes steadily. “But Alexei fooled him instead.”

Alexei’s eye bores into mine, his fists clenched at his side. I shake my head slightly, a tiny movement unnoticed by anyone else.Don’t do it,I pray silently.Please, please don’t do it.

Fortunately, Masha chooses that moment to pull her thumb out of her mouth. “Lexi and ’Felia secret.”

“Secret what?” Roman’s voice is lethally dangerous.

Masha turns to me. “Pretend,” she says solemnly, watching me. “Lexi made ’Felia pretend, didn’t he, ’Felia?”

“That’s right,myshka.” I force myself to smile. “It was a game, wasn’t it?”

“A game?” Roman’s eyes narrow. “What sort of sick game—”

“Alexei had to pretend to hurt me.”

I can see Alexei from the corner of my eye, his face white as chalk, mouth a hard line, lone eye blazing with dark arctic fire.

I have to keep talking, have to make sure he doesn’t speak up and sign his own death warrant.

“We had to make it convincing enough for Orlov to believe. I screamed and cried, but Alexei never touched me.” I meet Alexei’s eye and force myself to smile, willing him to stay silent. “He protected me.” I hug Masha tight. “Us,” I say quietly, holding his gaze. “He protected us.”

I don’t want to think about how easy it is to lie to Roman, or about why I know it’s the right thing to do. I just know that if Roman ever even suspects what Orlov forced Alexei to do to me, there’s no way he will survive. I might have spent my life up until now in nice boarding schools, kept away from the blood and bullets, but I know what my family is. What Roman is. I know he has to be ruthless, just as Alexei had to be to keep us alive.

I won’t let Alexei die for protecting me.

Roman stares at me narrowly for a long moment. Then he glances at Mickey. “Explain why you think he’s an ally,” he says curtly. “The CliffsNotes version.”

Mickey nods. “It was after I saw the numbers on your foot,” he says. “The series of numbers I’d been seeing repeatedly in the trojan was the same kind of code. Then Andersson sent another trojan, just as you left the hangar. This one had a more obvious message. One word embedded in it, repeated over and over.”

“Poppins.” I interrupt him, my heart lurching. “That was it, wasn’t it?”

Mickey nods, grinning.

I turn to Roman. “Alexei asked us if there was any word we knew that Mickey would recognize was from us. We told him to usePoppins.”

Roman frowns for a moment, then comprehension dawns. “Darya,” he says slowly. “That first day in the kitchen. You were singing songs from that movie.”

Mickey and I nod.

“Poppins!” Masha bounces up and down excitedly.

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