Page 121 of The Harbinger
Katya shook her head. “We’re already here, and it won’t take long.”
Vlad turned into a bumpy parking lot, then parked beside an Oldsmobile with rusted fenders and a broken headlight, none of which were as notable as Sacha’s.
If she thought that Sacha wouldn’t hear about her indiscretion, now that Vlad and Ivan knew, she was mistaken. Or maybe it was because they were childhood friends she thought she could get away with it. Would he be so angry with me? Maybe I’d exaggerated a little about how his reaction would be?
“Okay, but let’s make it quick.”
I grabbed the handle and opened the door when a slurry of Russian exploded in the front seat.
“English when you’re talking about me.” My shoulders rolled back when I looked over them. “I’m sick and tired of you keeping me in the dark.”
Ivan’s teeth ground against one another, his jaw bulging from the pressure. “You stay in the car.”
“Why?”
“It’s safer.”
I shook my head and laughed. “No one knows who I am. You know what makes me a target? You two walking at my back. Why don’tyoustay in the car and let me look like a normal human being?” I shoved the door open, ignoring his protests, but not before catching the smile on Katya’s porcelain face. My stomach agonized as the men stepped out of the car behind me, Katya meeting me at my side.
On second thought, Sacha might have my hide when we’re finished.
“Ty rastete muzhestvo.Look at your growing courage.”
I winced. I’d had more courage than I thought possible, but I never let it show. “Let’s get this over with.”
As we walked through the sliding doors of the small grocer, a medley of scents greeted us, a tantalizing combination of buttery bread, pungent herbs, and the unmistakable aroma of salted fish. And as we ventured further into the store, the sweet, fruity fragrance of ripe bananas wafted toward us, igniting our senses with a burst of tropical delight.
“Are these eggs?” I opened a brown carton sitting on a non-refrigerated shelf.
Katya nodded as she picked up an oval loaf of freshly baked bread and gave it a once-over.
“Won’t they go bad not being in the fridge?”
She scrunched her face, giving me a look that suggested I was nuts for asking something so alien.
“Your American practices…”
I closed the carton with a sigh and glanced over my shoulder at Vlad and Ivan, who stood at the back, their eyes roaming over every moving entity within the near vicinity.
Ivan held his phone to his ear, no doubt tattling on our adventure. Although it’d be in his best interest not to inform Sacha, given he was the one who took me from the confines of his home. Vlad looked at me from the corner of his eye, then darted off to a brawny, aged man who strode through the doors with three equally large men dressed casually at his back.
Vlad picked up his phone as Ivan dropped his into his pocket, his thumbs moving furiously over the screen.
It wasn’t the salt-and-pepper haired man walking towards Katya with a suave swagger that caused me pause, but Vlad’s shifting demeanor.
It wasn’t how the man gave Katya a warm embrace that made me want to fall into a deep dark hole, but how her widened, fear-filled eyes found mine.
And it wasn’t the way he smiled when he spotted me that had my feet itching to run, but the way Vlad stepped between us, his hulking frame drowning out my petite one.
The man stepped forward, pressed the back of his hand to Vlad’s shoulder, pushed him out of the way, and exposed me to his authority.
“Kak vas zovut?”
His rich, soothing tone lulled me into a sense of ease as a striking familiarity burned around me.
I shook my head when he spoke again. The space around me blurred into nothing, leaving only this man and his overwhelming presence. “What is your name?”
The sudden slap of English washed away the stupor to find both Katya and Vlad staring at me with rapt attention, their focus made of distress.