Page 35 of Lethal Alliance

Given the awkwardness of that distance, in some ways Mickey’s questions and story have been a welcome relief. I’m not quite sure when it happened, but at some point over the past few months, the children became Darya’s and my safe space. When we are with them we both know our roles. We slip into a mutually supportive team. Those roles are a comfortable place. But they’re also a mask, a place in which both of us have hidden our truth from the other.

Instead of truth, we’ve had desire.

We’ve avoided the secrets between us in the bliss of being naked and entwined, lost amid an all-consuming sea.

A bolt of longing hits me right in the abdomen, so fierce I shift uneasily again. I want to lose myself in that sea again. Not later. Not after we talk. I need it now, like I need to breathe. But Mickey’s sleeping form in the back seat isn’t the only reason that’s a bad idea. Something tells me that the time apart has dug a gulf that will take more than just sex to breach.

But Christ, it would be a good start.

It’s almost a relief when Darya breaks the silence. “Masha is six.” She speaks quietly, almost to herself. “I was still in the compound when Inger and Vilnus were together. Not that I knew anything about his social life. I wouldn’t have wanted to either.”

I glance at her. “Do you think the two things are linked?”

“I don’t know how they could be, if Vilnus only recently found out your real name.” She shakes her head. “But it’s a strange coincidence. Strange to think our lives were linked back then, even indirectly.”

I don’t argue with that. I’ve had exactly the same thoughts.

She sucks her lips in and exhales slowly. “And you never guessed that Ofelia was... yours.”

There’s a slight catch in her voice. I hunch over the steering wheel, unsure of how to answer her. What I really want to say is that the only time I’ve ever even let myself imagine having children was very recently—with Darya. And even then, I never really believed it could happen for me.

But I can’t pretend that learning Ofelia is my daughter doesn’t mean anything to me.

As for whether or not I suspected... I don’t know how to answer that either. I’m scared that anything I do say will drive Darya even further away than I already have, and that is something I don’t even want to contemplate. I’m still wondering how to answer when she speaks again.

“Are you... happy? Knowing she’s your daughter? That you’re a—a father?” Her voice trembles. She’s looking out the window, her arms folded over her body in an almost protective gesture, as if she’s trying to defend herself from some unseen attack.

“Right now, I’m just focused on getting both of the girls home.” Unwilling to say anything that might hurt her more than I already have, I avoid the question. “I need to work out how to put the Orlovs down for good.”

She shakes her head, still staring out the window. “I know Vilnus Orlov. He’s a piece of shit, but he doesn’t do anything by chance.”

The uncharacteristic bitterness in her voice makes me wince. It reminds me of all she endured before I met her, which in turn makes me savagely terrified at the thought of Ofelia and Masha in Vilnus’s hands now.

“Until you know exactly what he is playing at, you can’t just go in there with guns blazing. He’ll be expecting that.”

I might have promised Dimitry that I will hear her out before making an action plan, but her doubt pisses me off. Not least because going in guns blazing is almost precisely what I’m about to order Makari Tereschenko to do.

“When it comes to war,” I say stiffly, “I know what I’m doing, Darya.”

She gives a silent huff of humorless laughter. “And when it comes to the Orlovs,” she says quietly, “I know them better than anyone. I can’t make you take my advice. But if you really want to put the girls’ safety first, then you’ll get all the facts before you do anything. If I learned anything from the years he held me, it’s that Vilnus is one of the most ruthless men I’ve ever met. His allies are even more ruthless. And cunning.”

She meets my eyes, and in the headlights of an oncoming car, I see the fathomless depths of old pain in hers. “I know how dangerous you are, Roman. But the difference between you and Vilnus is that Vilnus won’t hesitate to kill the girls, even if you give him what he wants. Not even if Masha is his daughter. He is a man without honor, without heart. He betrayed my father, killed my mother, and I’ve watched him murder his own blood when they’ve disappointed him. Vilnusenjoysinflicting pain.”

For a moment I’m standing outside my father’s house again, watching Vilnus carve my father’s flesh into pieces as he screams in agony. I flinch. “I know what Vilnus is capable of,” I say roughly.

She nods slowly. “I know that he killed your parents, Roman. But knowing it is one thing. I lived it. Every day for years, I lived with his knives and his sadism. And believe me when I tell you this, Roman: whatever cruelty you’re capable of, Vilnus can do twice over, without blinking.”

12

OFELIA

“Eat.” Alexei pushes the tray toward us with his foot.

“I’m not hungry.” I huddle against the wall, holding Masha close.

The door behind Alexei opens, and Vilnus Orlov glares at us across the small room. “My dog told you to eat. Do as he says, or I’ll let him play with that knife he loves so much.”

I shudder and take a bread roll from the tray, nibbling the edge of it. Masha takes a bunch of grapes. She eats obediently, as she has with anything else Alexei has put in front of her. Masha has gradually thawed to Alexei over the few days we’ve been here, not that I really understand why. He never speaks, except to give us orders, and he rarely moves at all from his station in the corner of our cell, not even to sleep. The only times we have left the room is when Alexei has taken us to use the bathroom across the corridor. At least we’ve been able to wash in the sink there and been given fresh underwear. No clothing change, though. I’m pretty sure Vilnus plans to make us look as rough as possible for whatever ransom video he plans to make.

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