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“She’s alive.”
“What?” I still had some tinnitus in my right ear from all the shooting earlier. That had to be the explanation for mishearing him.
Misha closed his eyes and nodded, repeating it, only louder so there was absolutely no doubt what he said. “She’s alive, Sasha.”
As soon as I regained my senses, my blood fucking boiled. She was alive. This whole fucking time? Roan had almost been killed to avenge a murder that never fucking happened?!
I backhanded a bottle off the dry bar, getting zero satisfaction when it shattered. “I told you, I’m not playing games anymore, Misha! What the fuck is going on?!”
He sat hastily and gestured to the chair across from him.
To keep from lashing out again, namely at him, I forced myself to sit, hands clenched in my lap.
“Everything I told you after the party was true,” Misha said calmly. “She did come to Sergei for help. Kazimir was getting released from prison and she feared for her life. She wanted out.”
“Why?”
“Becauseshe’sthe one who gave evidence against him, evidence that put him in prison in the first place.”
“Why would she do something so fucking stupid?”
“For you,” he answered with a sigh. “She told me she was trying to make amends for what her family did, how they betrayed you. It helped put Kazimir away, but it wasn’t enough to free you.”
My body went numb with every new detail that emerged. No shit it wasn’t enough to free me. I rotted there for five fucking years because of her — because ofthem. And now she was back to say she was sorry?!
I barely recognized my own voice when I spoke. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Becausethatis the real reason Kazimir is here. To track down Daria, either to kill her or take her home. I don’t know. I don’t care. He made it clear he intends to take the rest of us out unless we give her up. He knows Sergei is the only one with the resources to help her.”
It also explained why Kazimir had been hiding in America for weeks already without making a move. It was one thing to strike against one person — it was another to strike against three. The meeting at the Adler was the perfect opportunity to hurt all three of us in one fell swoop. He always did have a knack for the long game.
“So if she’s not really dead, then who the hell did the police carry out of the house that night?”
Misha spread his hands. “I don’t know. One of Lada’s girls. It was enough to convince the police, but not enough to convince Kazimir.”
“How is that even possible? There’s video footage from that night. Did you know that?”
“Nothing is impossible, Sasha.” He gave me a little smirk. “Cameras are one of the easiest things to fool. A little interference, a brief pause in the feed, it’s all the time you need to swap one woman for another.”
“Isthatwhy Sergei had me kill Lada?” I asked, my hands clenching all over again.
His mouth twisted into a grimace and I had my answer.
“Goddamn it, Misha!” I got to my feet and strode away from him before I did something we’d both regret. “Did you know she was pregnant before you sent me there?!”
“It was either you or Kazimir,” he said quietly. “He wouldn’t have cared that she carried Yuri’s bastard. He would have used her for information — information we couldn’t let him have.”
“She knew Daria was alive.”
He nodded. “She saw her, of course. We had to match up one of the girls. And then Lada dropped the girl off at Daria’s hotel room the night of the masquerade.”
“Goddamn it!” If my right bicep didn’t have a fucking hole through it, I would have punched the wall or upended a table orsomething.
“I know…”
“You don’t know shit!” I snapped, whirling on him again. “Why is Sergei risking so much for her?”
“She traded some very important information for her life. Now that Sergei has it, he can remove Kazimir once and for all. After Viktor’s betrayal, he hasn’t trusted any of the Belovs.”
