Page 117 of Ruthless Sin
He was there.
“Her last words,” he says. Barely a whisper.“Naydi Milochku. Obeshchay mne. Ty mne eto dolzhen.”
Find Milochka. Promise me. You owe me this.
The words land in my chest like a knife.
My sister’s last words.
My name.
She died asking him to find me.
“I swore,” he says. “I fucking swore.”
“And then.”
He looks up.
“You swore to her face.” My hands are in my lap. They’re shaking. I can’t stop it and I’m not going to pretend I can. “You swore and then what. What did you do after you swore.”
He doesn’t answer.
“What did you do, Nico.”
“Alexei threatened me and my family” His voice is barely sound. “He said if he even suspected I was looking for anyone connected to this, he would find them first. And he would make sure I knew it was my fault.”
I wait.
“So I stopped.”
My breath goes out.
“How long.” My voice is steady. It has nothing to do with calm. “How long did you look before you stopped.”
He doesn’t want to say it. I watch his jaw work. I let the silence sit.
“Months,” he says. Low. Like saying it smaller makes it smaller.
“Months.”
It sits in the air between us. I can’t make it mean anything. I try and it won’t. Months. She gave him her life and he gave her months.
“She was looking at you when he killed her,” I say. “And you gave her months.”
His eyes close.
I watch him close his eyes. His jaw is rigid. His hands are at his sides.
He’s quiet.
Silence.
“I flew home alone.”
His hands are shaking.
“I told Dante the recon was unsuccessful. That my contact went cold.”
