Page 48 of Sexting the Pakhan

Despite everything, I almost smile.

Me:Every fifteen minutes.

Karina:And Zoya?

Me:Yeah?

Karina:Whoever you’re with, don’t trust them just because they helped you.

My smile disappears.

I look at Ruslan. He stands near the window with the sea behind him, tall and still and unreadable. The man I used to blush over. The man people tried to kill. The man who brought me here and says I can’t go home.

He saved my life. He also destroyed it in the same hour.

Me:I know.

Karina:I love you.

Me:I love you too.

I lower the phone and close my eyes.

For a few seconds, I let myself hear the water outside instead of my own heart. The waves. The wind against the glass. Ruslan’s quiet footsteps when he finally moves away from the window.

What have I gotten myself into?

7

RUSLAN

By the fourth day,I know less than I did on the first.

That’s not true, technically. I know the two men who came into the library were not professionals I would have hired. I know one of them is dead, one of them disappeared before my people reached the alley, and both of them were paid through an account that should not exist anymore. I know the moved book was not a warning for me.

It was bait.

Whoever touched the drop wanted me at the library on the wrong day, without my usual people in place, surrounded by civilians.

That narrows the list.

Not enough.

I stand in the downstairs office of the house by the sea while Stepan spreads photographs across the table. Faces. Cars. Bank trails. Blurred stills from security cameras nearby because the library footage itself is a problem now. The police took theservers before my men could get to them. Not ideal, but not impossible.

Stepan taps one image with two fingers. “This one worked for Grekov three years ago.”

I look at the photograph. “Worked for?”

“Temporary crew. Collections. A few warehouse jobs.”

“Alive?”

“For now.”

“Find him.”

“I’m trying.” Stepan lifts his eyes. “Everyone is trying.”