Page 35 of Savage Princess

“There’s any number of guesses I could make,” I tell her darkly. “He works in a dangerous business. It might not be related to us.”

“But it might be.” Her voice trembles, and I look at her, trying to gauge how likely it is that she’s going to pass out.

“Elena, are you going to be alright? I need to search the desk.”

“I–” She wobbles slightly, but I feel her stiffen and take a deep breath, and then she nods. “I’ll be fine. Just do whatever you need to do.”

I give her a second more to steady herself with my arm around her, and then I let go, moving towards the desk.

Papers are scattered everywhere, and it takes longer than I’d like to go through them. A lot of them are covered in blood, rendering them useless even if any of them were what I’d purchased for Elena and me. But ours are nowhere to be seen.

Carefully, I move the body, and beneath the limp hand, there’s a note. I pick it up, and my gut immediately knots.

This man is dead on your account, Volkov

If you wish to negotiate for a way out, the rabbit will need to meet with the Spider.

I grit my teeth, crumpling the paper in my fist. I hear Elena shift behind me, and I see from her expression when I turn around that she’s already figured out that something is very wrong.

“Levin?” Her voice is small, and I can tell she’s frightened–with better reason than she knows.

“Come on,” I tell her quickly, reaching for her arm. “We need to go. We’ll find a new motel, and I’ll explain, but we need to get out of here.”

“Our passports—”

“They’re not here.” I let out a sharp breath. “We need to gonow.”

Elena swallows hard, nodding as she follows me. I keep my gun out, prepared to shoot if anyone’s returned, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. The message was left for me, and they knew I’d find it. There’s no reason for anyone to come back.

I make sure the motel I take Elena to is a good distance from the one we stayed at last night. Once we’re inside and the door is blocked, I reach into my pocket and hand her the crumpled note.

“The rabbit needs to meet with the Spider? What the fuck does that mean?” She looks at me confusedly. “This doesn’t make any sense.”

“To you.” I sit down heavily on the edge of the bed. “I know who the man it’s referencing is. He’s a crime boss here in Rio.”

“He’s the Spider?”

She catches on more quickly than I would have expected. I nod tiredly. “Yes. Hernando Vasquez. He’s called the Spider. He’s very powerful, and if I had to guess, I’d say that Diego is working with him.”

Elena frowns, reading the note again. “So, who is the rabbit?”

“You are. I’m supposed to take him to you in order to negotiate a way out of all of this.”

“And if you don’t?” There’s a hint of defiance to her voice that impresses me—she should be far more terrified than she seems to be.

I rub a hand over my face. “Then he’ll keep sending men after us, until they have you.”

Elena sets the note down on the nightstand. “I guess we’re spending one night here?”

“We can’t stay in the same place for too long. That’s a good way to get noticed and have someone pick up a pattern. Then we’ll be running in the middle of the night again.”

“We’re going to run through every place in the city at this rate.” Her tone is clearly attempting levity, but it falls a little flat. I can hear the flicker of fear in it.

“We don’t have much money left,” I tell her grimly. “If I don’t figure something out soon, we won’t have anything left, and robbing another ATM isn’t a great idea. If I get arrested, Viktor doesn’t have the kind of pull here to necessarily bribe me free, and then you’ll be in even more danger.”

“So what are we going to do?” Elena looks at me, her face still surprisingly composed. “Do we have a plan?”

We.Something about the way she says it strikes me, the way she emphasizes it, instead of sayingdoyouhave a plan?It impresses on me more than ever that even though I’m meant to be the one protecting her, she considers herself a part of this too.

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