Page 60 of Essence of Fear

Pav was unmoved.

Cold, like ice.

Still, like a statue.

“I suspect,” Pav replied, his tone dead, “that was exactly your intention for me, too, Vadim.”

Her father only smiled.

10.

“OH, GOOD, you’ve learned how to use the cell phone.”

Pav scowled at the wall in the bedroom he’d been using as he replied, “I don’t appreciate your sarcasm, Konstantin.”

He knew how to use a fucking phone. He’d regularly had one when he worked in the chambers, just in case he needed it for whatever reason. There were rules, and the phone wouldn’t call anyone but the people in the contacts that had been inputted for him, but still …

“I’m just saying, yes, that it has been a week since the two of you landed in Russia, and this is the first phone call you’ve afforded me out of your very busy days,” Konstantin replied cheerfully. “That made me suspect you didn’t know how to use the device.”

“I know how to use it; I had nothing to call for.”

“Mmm.”

“I didn’t have anything to call for, and I still don’t, but I thought you might like an update anyway.”

Pav shifted on his feet and scratched the back of his neck as he peeked over his shoulder at the closed door. There were a lot of men on this estate watching Vadim Boykov. The man was supposed to be in exile, but there were times when Pav stayed in the shadows and observed, that he thought this was more like a vacation for Vadim. The man simply seemed to be biding his time.

The point?

He didn’t trust any of them.

There could be a man outside of the bedroom door right now, and he wouldn’t even be surprised about it. Pav was terribly good at staying out of sight, if he didn’t want to be seen, but the men on this estate made it their mission to sneak up on him at least once or twice a fucking day. He was starting to become uncomfortable.

“What is the update, then?” Konstantin asked.

“Nothing unusual. Viktoria is quiet and refuses to talk to most everyone here.”

He didn’t try to hide the bitterness.

Konstantin didn’t miss it, either.

“Even you?”

Pav cleared his throat. “Even me.”

Pretty regularly, too. Occasionally, she might say something to him in passing, but for the most part, the woman locked herself away, in a separate bedroom from him. She avoided her father at all costs, no excuses. He’d noticed that, too. She took her meals in her room, brought to her by a female maid, and that was basically the extent of her activity here.

Pav didn’t know what to make of it.

“She’s still angry, then?”

“And uncomfortable here,” Pav replied.

“She is Vadim’s favorite. He treated her like a princess for her entire life. Why would she—”

“She did learn some things involving her father before we came here. That could be why, don’t you think?”

Konstantin made a harsh noise under his breath. “It could, yes. And how is he with you?”