Page 23 of Lethal Alliance

“Oh, shit,” Dimitry mutters. “Abby.” He moves toward her. “I told you not to come up here.”

“I don’t give a singlefuckwhat you told me to do.” She twists out of the security guard’s grasp. “And you can get your damned hands off me, Igor, or whatever the hell your name is.” She turns fiercely to me. “What thefuck,Roman? I’ve spoken to Mickey and Dimitry, told them why Luce was planning to run.”

“Darya,” Mickey says quietly. “Her name is Darya, not Lucia.”

Abby throws her hands up in frustration. “Darya. Lucia. Who gives a fuck what her name is. She’s myfriend,Roman. And I thought she was a hell of a lot more than that to you. You cannot be so stupid—”

“We have to find her.” I interrupt Abby, barely managing to get the words out. “Darya. We have to find her.”

Mickey raises a sardonic eyebrow that could just about match my own. “Oh, you think?”

Dimitry rolls his eyes. “Well, it’s about fucking time.”

7

DARYA

Isit with coffee on the terrace in the brilliant Granada sunlight and stare at the burner phone I bought from one of the illegal street traders.

Lesson one of running is to never look back. But I’ve barely slept for worrying about the children, and the news is giving me nothing. I can’t exactly call the hospitals and start asking questions.

I don’t know what, if anything, Papa might know. I doubt Roman is beating his door down for company right now. But I’m certain Papa would have kept his burner phone a secret, and dangerous as it is to risk calling him, he is the only link I have to everything I’ve lost.

I brace myself and hit the numbers.

The phone rings for so long that my heart sinks.They must have found his phone.

Then, miraculously, the call is picked up.

“Da?”

It takes all I have not to burst into tears. “It’s me, Papa.”

“Dayushka!” There’s no hiding his relief. “Listen to me.” He speaks before I can respond. “You must come back. Make Roman listen. He has it all wrong.” Good as it is to hear Papa speak so fluently, I’ve never heard him sound so agitated.

“About what? What has he said?” More to the point, what has he done?

If Roman has hurt Papa . . .

I wince. I can’t even imagine that. Surely, no matter how much he hates me, Roman wouldn’t hurt an old man in his care? Is he truly capable of that?

“Come back, Dayushka. You both need to know the truth—”

“I can’t come back, Papa. Roman—I can’t come back.”Fuck.It’s so hard to know what I can and can’t say. “I just need to know if the children are safe.”

“The children?” He sounds genuinely bewildered. “Why wouldn’t they be safe?”

I frown over the terrace, staring at the dull ocher walls of the Alhambra, pale in the early-morning brilliance. There’s something calming about the sensual curves of the ancient palaces, a timelessness that lulls me into a false sense of security and makes the noise and terror of the explosion seem like a distant dream.

But it wasn’t. The explosion happened. And the children were there.

“There was a bomb.” I pick uneasily at a loose thread on my headscarf.

“Awhat?Why have I heard nothing? Ah.” He pauses. “That is why they have kept me from the television.”

“There was a bomb at the ball. And Alexei.” My breath hitches, the words falling clumsily from my mouth as I realize I haven’t even told Papa about my brother. “I saw him. He came to warn me, Papa, to tell me to run. He said the children were in danger if I stayed.”

“Alexei?” Papa’s tone sharpens. “Did he say why? What did he tell you? Darya.” He continues before I can answer his questions. “Youmustcome back. You can’t be out there alone, and I need to speak to you both.”

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