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“Elena, where are you off to in such a hurry?” Ethan asks as he walks out of the living room.
“I am meeting a friend. She’s got a crisis.” The lie comes so naturally.
“Oh, okay. Do you want a ride?” he asks.
“No, I’m okay. I’ll be safe.” I give him a hug before I leave. I get in my car, join the traffic, and drive toward the butchers. If it’s someone who works for my father, I’ll know. I’m sure I’ll know.
And he’ll answer to me.
I park around the back, where Luka’s Mustang is parked, and walk in. A man cries out as I round the corner. Arseny has a man tied to a chair and is carving up his face while his brother holds the man's head.
“Arseny.” I breathe.
Luka turns around and looks at me. “You must be Elena.”
“You must be Luka,” I say.
Arseny stands straight. “Glad you two have met. Now, we’re busy with an interrogation. Elena, why did you come down here?”
“First…” I say, not caring that Luka is there. I kiss Arseny. “Secondly, I came to see who it is myself.”
I look down at the man whose face is bleeding from multiple cuts. “I know you. Kristoff. Your family lives in Boston, don’t they?”
“They moved there for my daughter's special school. She’s gifted.” He looks at me fearfully. “You have betrayed the family and joined the Milovs.”
“It’s not true,” I say. I take out a handkerchief and dab at his cuts. I turn to Arseny. “Please, let him go.”
“You can let me go. You can kill me. There are more hits planned. More than just burning down one stupid laundromat. This place could be next.” He spits on the floor at my feet.
Arseny smacks him. “Respect her,” he growls.
The man looks up at me. “It was your family that ordered me to do these things, and now they are nowhere to protect me, and you stand with the Milovs.”
“Who gave you the order?” I ask, leaning in. “Was it my father?”
“It comes through on my email. No name attached. It's all sent from one central email point. It could be anyone from your family.” He swallows hard. “If you let me go, I won’t tell them that you’re together with this guy. I swear it.”
I look at Arseny. “He was just following orders. Please, let him go and banish him to Boston, where his family is. We’ll figure out who sent the emails and where the next hits are. Please, my… Arseny.”
He looks down at me and then at the man. “You have two hours to get out of the city, and then I’m coming for you again. You can thank Elena that I don’t cut your throat right now.”
“Thank you. Thank you.” Luka frees him, and he rubs his wrists before getting up and hurrying out the back.
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Luka says. “Cause if he rats you out to your father, we’re all dead.”
“He won’t. He loves his family very much. He doesn’t want to lose them.” I look up at Arseny. “Thank you. You have my word that I will figure out who’s giving the orders.”
We talk for a little while before I leave, going straight home. At first, I worry the guy has called my father, but nobody says anything when I’m home. Nobody questions where I was and what I was doing.
The days pass like that. I secretly meet Arseny sometimes with Luka, most times without, and we discuss who might be behind the hits on the Milov properties. When I’m alone with Arseny, he does things to me that drive me mad. We might as well put a bed in the knife shop at the rate we have sex there.
I try to pry from my brothers if either of them has been ordering hits on anyone, but they blow me off. My father also says he hasn’t got anyone on his radar, but I don’t know if they’re lying to me to keep me out of it.
One Saturday afternoon, Arseny and I have just finished dressing, when he pulls me to him. “Any more news on the hits?”
“Nothing,” I say with a sigh. “I just don’t know how to get it out of them.”
“Maybe you should let me try,” he suggests.
