Page 61 of Oblivion
“No, Katya. I would never threaten you. Even if you decide you don’t want to handle The Syndicate, I will understand. I just don’t want you to make any rash decisions right now. And, Ophelia,” he looked down at Kaiser, “I had the same dog when I was your age.”
My mouth opened and closed, my eyes following his every move as he went out of the house, followed by the three soldiers inside. Andrei came out of the kitchen and stopped right in front of me.
“You know we used to call youchernaya vdova,a black widow?” He smiled.
“I know.”
“Then you should also know that we never wanted to follow Nikolai’s orders, and we left before that day.”
“Which day?”
“The one in the club.”
“Don’t lie to me, Andrei. The men that were there—”
“Were the men that are now locked up for what they did. Lazar is not Nikolai, Ophelia. Trust me.”
With those words, he turned around and left with the others, leaving me all alone with my jumbled thoughts and more questions than answers.
Everything just changed.
17
OPHELIA
Cillian foundme in front of the house, sitting with Kaiser.
“What the fuck?” he exclaimed as soon as he saw me and immediately stopped a few feet away from us. “Why is there a bear in front of you?”
“He’s not a bear.” I chuckled. “Meet Kaiser.”
“Did he escape from a zoo or something?”
“Don’t be an idiot, Kill.” I stood up and grabbed Kaiser’s leash. “Come and say hi.”
“He looks like he’s going to eat me, Birdy. I’m not so sure about this.”
“Well.” I shrugged. “It’s either that or you’re sleeping in front of the house.”
His eyes flickered from me to Kaiser who kept wagging his tail, wanting to play with him. I was starting to believe that dogs knew who we liked and who we didn’t like. He kept pulling me, wanting to go to Cillian.
“Are you sure he won’t eat me?” Cillian asked, slowly approaching us.
“I’m pretty sure I bite more than he does, Kill. So just come here and introduce yourself to him. He’s not going to do anything to you.”
Cillian looked up at the dark sky above us, then down at me, huffing and puffing, with his hands on his hips. But he understood that Kaiser wasn’t going anywhere, and it was better to be friendly than to be afraid.
“Fine,” he exhaled. “But if he eats me—”
I rolled my eyes. “He’s not going to eat you.”
“But if he does—”
“If he does, I will bury your remains behind the house and you can haunt me for the rest of my life.”
He took a step forward, then two, then three, until he finally stopped in front of Kaiser, slowly extending his hand to his snout, letting Kaiser sniff him.
But Kaiser was having none of it. Within a second, he pulled harder than I anticipated, making me extend the leash, and jumped on Cillian, knocking him down on the ground. His butt moved from side to side—not only his tail, but his body covering Cillian who was squirming on the ground while Kaiser licked his face.
