Page 52 of The Harbinger
She hung her head. “His future.”
The bedroom door slowly shut, and my heart stopped. Like a red-hot poker, a heavy sensation sunk into my chest. Any hope or desire I’d felt before had been snuffed out with two seemingly trivial words.
I’d been wrong all along.
I rose and tossed the brush into the drawer, pausing when a small crystallized powdered bag caught my eye. Pushing aside combs and hair pieces, I grasped the baggy, holding it up and giving it a little shake.
“Holy shit.”
Glancing over my shoulder, the twinge inside me ate away at my very being, causing my fingertips to shake and my belly to gurgle.
This couldn’t be happening.
Was someone setting me up? Was this a test?
Was it Nina’s?
My gums ached as my heart raced, sweat trickling down my back.
The slam of a car door jolted me out of my daze. I shoved the cocaine back in the drawer and buried it under the combs, then went downstairs, my pulse ringing in my ears.
Sacha waited in one of the three SUVs parked next to the door in the circular driveway. Ivan stood by the rear passenger door and opened it when I emerged. His beady eyes stared at me as I stepped inside, my damp hands smoothing down my skirt as I sat.
“Why does he have to come?” I asked just before Ivan opened the front passenger side door.
“He’s part of my security team.”
I shifted closer to him as Ivan shut the door. “But he doesn’t like me.”
Sacha smiled. “Do you want him to be your friend?”
Shaking my head, I slouched in my seat. It wouldn’t hurt.
If an emergency happened and it fell on Ivan to protect me, he wouldn’t do it. It was that simple.
Who’d protect someone they loathed?
Dmitri pulled out of the driveway, following the car in front of us through the shadowy path surrounded by trees. I looked out the window, dissecting the area for anyone who could be of assistance, but the road was deserted, blanketed by thick forestry until several miles later when we hit town roads, then city streets filled with people and towering structures—the same ones we’d passed once we landed at the airport.
“How long will this take?” I asked.
“An hour or so.”
“And you don’t have to go to work? I took you as a very busy man.”
“Oh, I am, Mia. But if you want something done right…”
A strong air of tension hung between Sacha and Ivan as he glared at the back of his head.
What did I miss?
Dmitri followed the vehicle up to the white hospital—its six imposing columns reaching up to the sky and the statue of a man on horseback, sword raised and ready to do battle with a dragon, stood tall at the apex of the building. The sun glinted off its walls, creating a shimmering effect that could be seen for miles.
“This is a hospital?”
Sacha nodded.
“But it looks like an apartment building or business.”