At last she says, “It’s impossible to be neutral in our world. You have to pick a side. Are you sure which side you want to be on?”
“I’m not going to turn against my own father,” I hiss.
“And Rafe won’t turn against his,” Sabrina says. “So I guess you’ll both immolate yourselves for your dads.”
I look at Rafe standing at the wheel again—a stranger in name, but achingly familiar in the shape of his broad shoulders, his lean frame, and his shock of wind-tossed hair.
My chest is burning, my eyes are burning.
I’ve never had to struggle so hard not to cry.
Is he tearing apart inside, like me?
Does he feel like he’s dying, minute by minute?
Or was this easy for him all along?
“Just leave me alone,” I mutter to Sabrina.
“Alright,” she says. “But I’m not actually leaving you. I’m here with you, as much as them.”
Right, I think. Until it’s time to kill my dad.
We pull into the port of Dubrovnik.
Rafe unlocks the handcuff tying me to the rail, and the ones between my feet, but leaves my hands bound.
“Will you come along quietly?” he asks me. “I don’t want to have to gag you.”
“You’ve gagged me plenty of times before,” I say.
The muscle at the corner of his jaw twitches.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “I shouldn’t have been intimate with you.”
“Is that what we were?” I say. “Intimate? Or was it just me who was intimate, and honest, and real, while you were a fucking lying snake.”
Now Rafe’s anger flares to match mine. He seizes me by the front of my shirt, bringing our faces close together.
“I’ve told you things I never told anyone in my life,” he growls. “I felt things with you I’ve never felt. I fell into you like a well and I’m still fucking falling. I never lied when I said I love you.”
“Just about everything else!” I cry.
“I don’t care about anything else!” he shouts back at me.
Someone clears their throat on the dock. I see three people standing watching: a tall young man with a shock of wild black hair and a ferocious expression, a slim, dreamy-looking girl with eyes dark as bruises in her pale face, and Miss Robin—or, Sloane Petrov, I suppose I should call her.
It’s plain as day that this woman is no librarian. I’m not sure how I ever believed she was. She’s dressed in black, her hair no longer red, now a deep midnight shade that mirrors her companions. The glasses are gone. She stands taller, straighter, radiating that dangerous energy I intimated the first time we met. Now her power is unleashed, like a shade taken off a lamp.
“Let’s go,” Sloane says.
Rafe takes my arm. I try to shake him off, but he pulls me along with that unnerving strength he tried so hard to conceal.
I see Kade grin at the black-haired young man, passing him a couple of scuba tanks.
“Are you getting shorter?” the man says, grinning back at him.
I’m guessing this is the famous Adrik Petrov—famous at Kingmakers, at least.
“You fucking wish,” Kade says, sizing up their relative heights in a glance. “You’re lucky if you’ve got a solid inch on me still.”
“I’ve still got several inches on you where it counts,” Adrik says, winking not at Kade, but in the direction of Sabrina Gallo.
Sabrina rolls her eyes, picking up the last two scuba tanks.
Adrik holds out his hand to take them from her.
Ignoring him, Sabrina leaps lightly down to the dock.
Adrik narrows his eyes, following close after her.
He doesn’t know Sabrina likes the hunt herself. Showing obvious interest is the quickest way to bore her.
I’d be amused to see how this will play out, if I didn’t have more pressing things on my mind. Like where the fuck we’re all going, and what these people plan to do when they get there.
We all load into two SUVs. I’m in the first car with Sloane, Rafe, Hedeon, and the dark-haired girl.
The girl slides into the backseat next to me, with Rafe on my other side.
“I’m Freya,” she says, quietly. “Rafe’s sister.”
This is not how I wanted to meet Ares’ family.
I blush, remembering the stupid fantasies I had of meeting the Cirillos on some beautiful Greek island. Being welcomed into their home.
I was such a fucking fool.
“Rafe wrote to me about you,” Freya says.
Her large, dark eyes are similar in color to Sloane’s—a deep amber color with rings of forest green. Their character is entirely different, however: there’s nothing sharp in Freya’s gaze. Rather, she’s looking at me with a level of sympathy that pains me.
“I didn’t know you existed,” I say, trying to hide my hurt, and failing miserably.
We’re speeding through the dark streets of Dubrovnik. Time seems to collapse and extend like a spring. Each moment is painful and jarring to me, and yet it all streams by too fast, because I don’t want to arrive wherever we’re going. Too soon we pull up to a private airfield outside the city. I can see a jet waiting on the tarmac—one similar in size to my father’s.
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” I ask Rafe.
“Almaty,” he says.
That means nothing to me.
“In Kazakhstan,” he clarifies, while explaining nothing at all.
“What’s in Kazakhstan?” I say, blankly.
“My father,” Rafe replies. “And by the way, your father is traveling in the opposite direction, from there to here. So whatever reckoning is coming to him, he should be safe at least for tonight.”
That shouldn’t comfort me—the Petrovs obviously intend to kill my dad as soon as they get the chance.
But I am relieved to hear that we won’t be seeing him now.
A hundred things could happen between tonight and tomorrow.
31
Rafe
We fly to Almaty, where we meet eight of my father’s men, including Timo Sidorov, his Avtoritet since Efrem died.
Timo embraces my mother, clasping her on both shoulders.
“It’s good to have you back, gertsoginya,” Timo says.
“By morning, we’ll all be back where we belong,” my mother says.
“God willing,” Timo agrees.
“God doesn’t get the credit for this one,” Adrik says, disembarking from the plane. “Not after we did all the fucking work.”
“Careful,” Timo says, with a paranoid glance skyward. “You might need his help still.”
My phone pings in my pocket. I check the screen.
“Marko just landed in Dubrovnik,” I say. “Miles has eyes on him.”
“Good,” my mother nods. And then to Timo, “Let me see what you brought.”
Timo throw open the trunk of his military Jeep, displaying an impressive array of firearms.
“You brought the C4?” my mother asks.
“Of course,” Timo nods.
“Good. Let’s get going, then.”
We already briefed Leo, Anna, Hedeon, Dean, and Sabrina on the plane. Our plan is simple: we’re going to attack the mine at two points. Half of us will drive in through the tunnels, while the other half will attempt to traverse the underground waterways used to remove waste from the mines.