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“Yeah, sure. Come on in,” I muttered, scrambling out of his way.
Checking behind the door, he closed and locked it before prowling through the rest of the room, clearing the bathroom, the closet, and finally cutting across to the balcony to snap the drapes shut.
“Oh my God. Is that him?” Frankie shouted from the computer.
“Shit.” I darted over to the laptop, hand outstretched to smack the top down. Sasha beat me there, grabbing my wrist while his eyes narrowed on Frankie.
“Francesca Starling,” he said, arching a questioning eyebrow at me.
“Oh my God,” Frankie gasped, covering her mouth with both hands and staring at the screen. “He knows my name Roan! How does the fucking scary Russian know my name?”
“I’ll check in with you later,” I said quickly, slapping the computer closed and scowling at Sasha. “Did you have to freak her out?”
He gave me a smug smile.
I folded my arms over my chest, leaning against the desk. “So do we have a deal?”
Sasha closed the distance between us, crowding my personal space like always. At first I thought it was an intimidation tactic, and maybe it was, but Misha did the same thing and he had been nothing but nice to me.
“You give me the key, I take what I want,” Sasha said, his face dipping slightly, “and then what? My boss thinks you’re chained in a basement right now. How do I explain your sudden disappearance?”
“Just say you got tired of waiting for my dad, so you made a move. You took me to the house and I got the key for you.” I shrugged. Seemed like a believable story.
“And then I’m supposed to eliminate any witnesses.” His head tilted to the side after the proclamation, like I expected any different. It was always the same with him. Pain, or death.
“Say I escaped,” I answered blithely.
“No one escapes from me,” he growled.
I gave him a wry smile. “That’s not entirely true.”
His face darkened and I swore I heard his molars grinding. “How the fuck did you get bolt cutters?!”
Laughing quietly, I took a moment to enjoy how annoyed he looked. Not knowing was killing him and I loved every second of it. “That’s not part of the deal. The deal is you get the key and whatever other inside information you need. Hell, I’ll even go into the vault and get it for you. And you promise not to kill me or cut off any body parts.”
“Fine.” Glowering, he held out his hand and beckoned with two fingers.
I dug the key out of my pocket and held it aloft before dropping it into his palm. “I’m trusting you, Sasha.”
“This better work or Iwillkill you,” he replied, pocketing the key.
“It’ll work. You just have to trust me in return.”
“I trust no one.”
“Not even your family?”
“I don’t have a family.”
“That’s sad.” It also explained a hell of a lot…
He made a face at me. “Why?”
“I don’t know. Seems like a lonely way to go through life.”
“Americans are so sentimental,” he huffed, rolling his eyes. “Youhave a family. They did nothing for you.”
“Wow.” I blinked, reeling from his blunt-as-fuck observation. “I guess Russians really are cold-hearted bastards.”
