Page 59 of The Beast of Moscow

She didn’t even have an answer to her own mind’s question.

One last time, Vera tried to call through to Igor—and this time, she stepped closer to the end of the hallway where she would have a view of Vaslav once more. The half-partition wall made up of plaster on the bottom and windows at the top looked into the sunroom that appeared to take up over half of the third floor’s square feet. He’d stopped pacing, at least, where he had planted his feet shoulder width apart in the middle of the room. He even took off his suit jacket, so she had a view of his tense, muscular back. One fist held his phone to the side of his head, and the other remained balled at his side.

Still pissed.

The call rang only twice before it ended this time, leading Vera to believe that Igor was simply rejecting her calls manually. Almost to the second it ended, she watched as Vaslav’s head tipped to the side. He turned slightly, enough to glance over his shoulder in the direction that he had used to enter the room.

Straight through the windows to her.

“Go,” she watched him say.

Whether he shouted it, or simply mouthed the words, she understood.

Plain as day.

Vera squeaked under her breath, unable to contain the surprise before she spun on her heels and took off down the hallway. Maybe this wasn’t the right time to call Igor.

So, when was?

*

Vera had explored the better part of the bottom floor by the time her angry companion decided to make his way back downstairs. She’d skipped over the bedrooms on the second floor as she figured that was a bit too close to the pacing man upstairs.

Her favorite room, after the kitchen painted in the same yellow tones that was fully stocked with food, was the den at the front, across the hall from the large dining room that led into the kitchen. Big bay windows overlooked the quiet street, and the better part of the upper half of the Eiffel Tower could be seen beyond the rows of homes across the cobblestone street.

In front of the bay windows sat a glossy white piano. She didn’t know how to play, but she could already hear the keys tinkling away while the tower was lit up at night.

“He means when I am dead,” she heard spat behind her.

Vera spun around on her heels, away from the beautiful view beyond the lush, shimmering curtains framing the window. Vaslav stood in the entryway of the open den where the hallway and stairwell was in view. She hadn’t even heard his footsteps coming down.

“I’m sorry?”

“Igor,” Vaslav said, the name clipped in his mouth. “When it comes to his number, you should use it only if I am dead. That’s something he’ll want and need to know in regard to you and me. Otherwise, I will provide you with a number to use to call should you need something he isn’t required to provide. Do you understand?”

Vera’s brow rose slightly. “Did you not know he had given me his—”

“No.”

“What?”

“Is an explanation required?” he asked back cuttingly.

Vera blinked at how mean he could sound without even trying. He stood there stoic, gaze cold and hard, but he delivered his words with a tone so cruel it stung upon impact.

“I didn’t ask very much about this trip—in fact, I didn’t even ask for it,” Vera said quietly, doing her very best to be unmoved by his aura of aggression. Maybe he didn’t mean to come off that way, or perhaps he meant exactly that, but she wouldn’t be intimidated by it. “So, maybe you can understand why I would use the phone number provided to me when you decide to act like a spoiled child instead of telling me what I did wrong.”

His chin tipped up.

Not much, but it did.

She took his moment of silence as a chance to speak again while she had the chance.

“It was a joke, Vas,” she said.

“Except someone told you it, and when I tell you it’s not the name they printed in papers, or hollered at me in the streets; it’s not a name they call me to my face, it means you had to learn it from somewhere. I want to know where.”

Vera fidgeted under the weight of his stare and her growing silence that followed his demand. Eventually, she asked, “That’s why you called Igor?”