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“Olga looks similar to you, and she’s pregnant,” Temur tells me, ignoring my statement.
“Is that supposed to make me feel better about another pregnant woman taking my place?” I look at him in disbelief. “And don’t say it’s because she’s trying to find Urie. Because that just makes me feel even fucking worse, as his disappearance is also my fault.”
“No!” Temur holds up an index finger. “That is not how it sounded.”
“It sounded like Olga’s life is less important than mine, as is her child.”
“Can you just stop being so unreasonable for a few minutes.” Temur sighs. “We can go for a walk outside. Would that make you feel better?”
“You mean around the roof garden?”
“That’s outside,” Temur observes. “Look. As soon as Andrey and Sasha have found Lev and neutralized the threat…”
“You mean as soon as they find and kill Lev, then my life can just go on as normal,“ I translate the real meaning of his words. “But it’s not just Lev’s life though, is it?”
“Lev started all this shit,” Temur states.
“Did he?” My brow creases. “Or is he just another victim of this world you all live in?”
“Like it or not, princess,” Temur’s voice dips and his eyes darken, “this is the world you’ve always lived in as well. Deep in your heart you’ve probably always known something wasn’t quite right about your life.”
I gape at him in disbelief before punching him on his hard arm. “Fuck! It’s like punching a brick wall.”
“I work out,” Temur tells me. “A lot. Especially these past two days.”
“Oh, because I’ve been driving you crazy!” I sneer. “I’m not keeping you here.” I point at the exit. “There’s the door. Please let it hit you in the ass on the way out.”
“You’re such delightful company today.” Temur stands from the sofa and walks to the large glass door. I see him turn his head slightly as if listening to something. He pulls his phone out of his pocket. “Fuck!”
I know that fuck! It’s not the good fuck, it’s the get your fucking things together fuck fuck because there are gun-toting maniacs after me to get hold of my babies. I touch my stomach. I wonder if my mother pumped me full of her super serum, and now my babies are super babies and that’s why everyone wants them.
“Isabella!” Temur snaps. “Get a coat and your boots that allow you to jump over roofs. We have to move—now!”
“I knew it was get your shit we’re moving fuck!”
I jump up from the sofa. I’m not even alarmed anymore. I’m more irritated with having to leave the nice, cozy, warm apartment and go into the freezing autumn Canadian weather, and I didn’t get to have my apple pie from Maggies.
“What about the women in the shelter?” My eyes widen. “No!”
I refuse to take the long coat and boots Temur is shoving at me. “There are women in this center.”
“They’re not going into the center,” Temur tells me. “They’re coming up the back. They can’t get into the shelter, remember?”
“Oh!” I nod. Of course. I shake my head. Fuck, my memory is like Swiss cheese.
I let Temur help me into the flak jacket that has been made especially for me, my coat, and I slip into the fur-lined boots my uncle apparently brought me from Russia. As I’ve put those on, Temur shoves the woolen hat onto my head.
“Do you have mittens to go with that?” Sarcasm drips off my tongue.
“No.” He shakes his head and pulls leather gloves from my coat pocket. “Gloves.”
As I’m sliding them on, Temur has already pulled the sunroom ladder down and scaled it to open the hatch to the roof garden. He slides down. “Up you go.”
“I hope you’re coming with me?”
“I’m right behind you,” he assures me. “You know the drill—keep below the balcony.”
“Yes!” I roll my eyes and climb the ladder, shivering when the blast of cold air hits me in the face. I crouch and crawl on my hands and knees below the balcony level. “This is getting so fucking old. If I was reading a book about my life, I’d be saying, fuck can’t you get to the point already.”
