I brought up the satellite imagery, linking it to the body trackers the men had planted in their arms, so Maksim knew where the fuck they were. I’d dug mine out of my skin the night I’d walked away mid-job. I still had the scar on my arm. The wound hadn’t been pretty but digging a chip out of my arm with the sharp point of a knife while riding the subway leaves a hell of a scar. At least I gave the passengers a nice show. I’d always enjoyed messing with people’s heads.
The dots moved on the screen, and I pulled up the area. They were where they were supposed to be. Two men were somewhere in Siberia. One was in Finland. One in Denmark. Jobs that Maksim sent them on. None of them were headed to the States, or anywhere close by.
Satisfied, I let out a breath I’d been holding. As long as they kept their trackers in and I could find them, we were all good. Maksim wouldn’t risk having anyone work for him without a chip, and I was the only one clever enough to hack into the tracking system. I was safe for now.
I powered down my shit to save the battery and left the cave, pushing through the crack again. I walked down to the cabin slowly, giving the woman the space she said she needed. When I pushed the door open, Angela stood in the kitchen, carving the pheasant. On the little table, she had put out two plates.
I watched as she worked, her hands expertly gripping the knife. She wasn’t scared to get her hands dirty. This woman was incredible. Beautiful, feisty as shit. And she knew how to use a knife, from what I could see.
Even though I had my reservations about opening up to a stranger, I couldn’t deny her nature was genuine. She didn’t seem to be hiding anything.
Innocent, pure. She was too good for me. I wasn’t going to touch her. She deserved better. So, so, much better than a fucked up former assassin with tattoos and a past so dirty there would be no absolution. I’d crossed the line too many times to count.
Behind that line was a special kind of hell, reserved for people just like me.
I didn’t want to drag someone like Angela to that place.
Angela
When Viktor walked inside, I frowned at him and wondered where he’d been. He smelled like the forest, and I inhaled deeply before returning to my task of cutting up the poultry.
“Welcome back,” I stated, a little sarcasm in my tone. He grunted but didn’t speak, and I glanced over my shoulder again, catching his eyes. He was staring at me, and I lifted my eyebrows. “What?”
“Nothing,” he growled and stomped into the other room, leaving a trail of mud behind him.
My clean streak cried as I looked around for a broom, but my stronger half told me cleaning up after him wasn’t my job. He’d cooked, I’d cut up the bird, but I wasn’t a damn maid. Obviously he cared about cleanliness because, overall, the cabin was well-kempt. But he was a crude man and clearly not used to having company.
There was just something about him, though, and I listened to my gut. Even though everything about him screamed trouble, my instinct told me he wasn’t dangerous.
I scoffed aloud at myself. I’d seen the tattoos, his brooding nature, the jagged scar across his otherwise handsome face. Maybe the knock to my head had been harder than I thought. Logically, it made no sense that I would be this drawn to someone like him. If he spoke five words to me in a row, it was a lot. And he seemed so damn suspicious of who I was and where I came from.
He liked being out here alone, I could tell. He was one with the forest in a way I hadn’t seen before. Hell, my dad had been like that, too, what I could remember about him. Rough and rugged. And insistent on exacting control over the people in his life. The physical bruises my mother had borne were no longer visible, but the emotional scars would remain forever.
Viktor seemed nothing like the man my dad was before he ditched us. For one, I wasn’t afraid of Viktor. Maybe I should have been. I just couldn't find it in myself to be.
When he walked back in the room in a clean shirt, he glanced at the floor and scowled, then took his boots off and carried them to the porch in his socks. He reached into the pantry and swept up the mud, dumping it in a bin where I assumed I’d toss the bones. We worked in silence until an itch of discomfort pushed me to open my mouth.
“I really need to get home, or at the very least call. My mother is probably worried.”
He didn’t speak, just returned to the broom to the pantry. I heard rattling and assumed he was getting plates, and I thought about my mother, hoping she was alright and not too worried. I didn’t want her to feel abandoned. She’d been abandoned once by my dad, as I had I, and I didn’t want her to feel that again.
I glanced at him and set the knife down with a clack, turning my body to fully face him. “I have a job. I need to get back to it.”
He looked my way, eyebrow lifted. “What do you do?”
I sighed. I’d already told him, but I repeated, “I work for an insurance company for now.”
“For now?”
“My boss, Ryan, is a dick,” I said bluntly. “He sent me up here to check on some rockslides for claims research even though it was a waste of time.” I rolled my eyes as I walked to the sink and washed my hands. “He told me to focus on my job.”
“Are you quitting because he’s a dick?”
I contemplated not answering him since he never seemed to answer any of my questions, but I felt like talking. “Yep. He showed me his real side at the corporate holiday party. He wanted me to go home with him, you know, sleep with him. He got a little pushy. I threatened him, he backed off.”
“He tried to force you?” he asked, his voice wrathful.
I glanced at him, surprised by his vehemence. “Oh God, no. Just pushy. After, he treated me differently, more harshly, gave me shit assignments. I already told him I’m leaving, and I fully intend to tell that asshole exactly where he can shove his penis.” I snickered, but he didn’t join me. Shrugging, I added, “Time to find something new.”
“Like what?” He stepped into the kitchen and found cutlery, then placed it on the tiny table.
“There’s a job in Chicago,” I told him. “But I’m not sure I want to leave my mom behind. Leave my life in Grizzly Falls.” I chuckled. “My mom says I should go, live the life she never had. Maybe I will.”
And maybe she was right. Maybe going to a new world where the pain of the past didn’t exist was what I needed. I would do it for her. To live the freedom she couldn’t find when she was my age. Even though the unknown was terrifying.
I still had a week in Grizzly Falls, though, with Ryan making life hell for me because he was pissed off I was leaving. Without sleeping with him. I had dreaded this last week at work.
Ridiculously, I felt a bit of relief as I glanced at Viktor. I’d met my apparent saviour who’d whisked me away to his home in the woods - minus the fact that he wasn’t much more pleasant than my horrible boss. However, he certainly was far more pleasant to my eyes - and my lady parts.
Dark was falling, and Viktor locked all the doors and stoked the fire in the small hearth before we sat down to eat. I’d found some canned veggies, which weren’t my favorite, but I didn’t want to just eat meat like some kind of carnivore. I put everything on the table and we served ourselves, then ate in silence for several minutes.