Page 42 of Twisted Little Game

“I said fuck you,” I repeat louder, turning toward him. “You take me around like I’m a puppy on your little errands, and you can’t tell me why I just saw two murders happen and you guys are acting like it’s no big deal?”

“Because it’s not your business.”

“It is now, if you’re dragging me along like this.”

“You weren’t supposed to see or hear any of that. It wasn’t supposed to happen that way.”

I hear a little sound from Maks in the back seat.

I realize he’s suppressing laughter.

Roman pulls out onto the road. I think the conversation is over until he finally speaks.

“If Yegor did not kill those men, they would have killed us, minutes later. I know it may be hard to believe this, but it was self-defense, Tate.”

“How do you know they were going to kill you?”

“They want something from us.”

“What?”

“Information.”

As he takes the car back out onto the main road, my perception of Roman shifts, yet again.

I knew he wasn’t an ordinary college student, but this…

This crosses a thick, fat fucking red line into something I don’t want to contemplate.

I’m afraid of asking more questions. But I’m also afraid of not knowing.

“Why were you making a stop at this guy’s house in the first place?”

“Giving Maks a ride. They were having lunch. Yegor is stupid, but he is family.”

A thousand questions bubble up in my mind, but part of me doesn’t want to know the answers to many of them.

I stay silent.

Roman and Maks start to speak to each other in Russian. I wish like hell I could understand what they’re saying. They speak the language fast and beautifully.

An idea sparks in my mind.

Earlier this week, in my French class, a student showed me an app on his phone. An app that can pick up spoken words and translate them, in real time.

I slide out my phone and navigate to the translator app, hitting the “live record” button and hiding my screen.

Roman and Maks’s conversation starts to transcribe onto the screen, fully translated.

“...a fucking problem. He wants to kill more Malettis, you know,” Maks says.

“Yegor will restart the war,” Roman replies.

“He does not care if he does.”

“I’ll fucking kill him before he does. The idiot.”

“You couldn’t kill Yegor. You still see him as a child,” Maks replies.