Page 16 of Lethal Alliance

I frown. “Why are you so sure?”

He opens his mouth, as if he’s about to say something, then closes it again. “Just trust me. He won’t. But hewillwant to hurt you, Ofelia.” He glances out the window. “We’re nearly there. Once we’re inside the gates, you don’t ever talk to me like this unless I speak first and tell you it’s alright to do so. There are eyes and ears in every corner of the compound. All it takes is one mistake. Remember, you’re terrified of me. I was the one who cut your face back at the airport, and you’re scared I’m going to do it again. I’m the most frightening man you’ve ever met.”

Again, not hard.

“Are you going to hurt us?” Masha is staring at Alexei through narrow eyes.

“I have to.” Alexei answers her flatly, without embellishment. He flicks up his sunglasses again so his lone eye meets Masha’s. “Or at least, I have to pretend to. If you fight me, you will make it much worse than it needs to be.”

Masha glares at him.

Alexei glances at me. “You need to make her understand,” he says. “Fast.”

“Masha.” I cuddle her into my side. “Alexei is Lucia’s brother. He won’t hurt us.”

Oh, you’re sure about that, are you, Ofelia?

I swallow my own doubts. Masha needs to believe this.

“If we’re going to stay safe, we have to play a game.” I turn her face so she looks at me. “We have to pretend that Alexei is the man who cut me at the airport. We have to pretend we are very scared of him. If he uses a knife on me, you can scream and cry. But our secret is that Alexei isn’t really hurting me with his knife. Even if you see blood on my face, it’s all just pretend, okay? But nobody can know that. It’s our secret. Yours, mine, and Alexei’s. Nobody else can know, or else we will be hurt for real, like I was back at the airport. Do you understand?”

Masha’s large blue eyes study Alexei with a scrutiny that might, under other circumstances, make me laugh. “Does Luce know the secret?”

Alexei’s mouth tightens. He looks like he’s going to argue. I glare at him over Masha’s head. “Yes, Mash. Luce is part of our game.”

Masha looks confused, and my stomach twists with guilt.Better she believe the lies than give us away.

Finally, to my relief, she nods.

“Good,” Alexei says as the limo slows. He puts the screen back up, blocking Dima from view. “Because we’re here. It’s game time, ladies.”

His face is hard and cruel behind his glasses, and I shiver.

Some game.

The gates open, and we drive through them.

My first impressionof the Petrovsky compound is that it’s big.

I mean, as inhuge.

The driveway itself goes on for what seems like forever, through lush gardens filled with exotic flowers and big old banyan trees, the kind that have loads of roots that go down to the ground. Through the trees I can see glittering water that stretches to the horizon.

There are worse places to be kidnapped to.

I give a hiccup of nervous laughter, and Alexei glares at me.

Or maybe that’s just his resting gangster face.

Palm trees grow around a helicopter pad, which gives way to a dock.

That’s one escape route.

There’s no way I’m getting out through the front gate. The walls on either side of the entrance are solid concrete, too high and smooth to climb, and covered in barbed wire at the top, like a prison.

The limo glides to a stop in front of a large fountain. It’s made of colored stone and opens like a flower. Strange as it is to notice such a thing at a time like this, I can’t help but think how beautiful it is.

The front of the house is nothing like any home I’ve seen before, though it is similar to pictures I’ve seen of palatial houses in Russia. It has strange curved edges and oddly shaped windows, with an intricate arch over the front entrance that almost looks like it belongs on a mosque. It’s peaceful, somehow, despite the armed guards stationed at every point.

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