Page 135 of Marrying the Savage

“I need to call Anya,” I say. “I haven’t spoken to anybody outside this house in weeks, almost two months now. I’m going crazy, please.”

“You can use the phone Mr. Volodin gave you.”

“Yes, I can, and maybe he can listen in while she tells me whether my hair looks nice and whether I should start taking up cliff-diving as a marital escape strategy.”

Marina’s mouth tightens, like she’s trying not to react. “I don’t know if he listens,” she says.

“That’s not comforting.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” She hesitates. That’s all the opening I need.

I step closer. “Please.”

The word tastes strange. I don’t use it often. Not because I’m proud, though I am. Because in my world, please is usually decorative. Men hear it and decide whether it amuses them.

Marina hears it. That’s different.

Finally, she says, “Your things are in the security office. They were brought from the church.”

“My purse?”

“Yes.”

“My old phone?”

“If it was inside.”

“Can you get it?”

“I shouldn’t.”

“No one in this house should do half the things they do.”

“Sofia.”

“I need one private call.”

She looks toward the door again. Then she exhales. “Ten minutes.”

I almost hug her. I don’t, because that seems unfair to both of us before she commits the crime.

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet.”

She leaves. I drink the coffee while waiting because anxiety and caffeine have a toxic but dependable relationship. By the time Marina returns, my heart is beating too fast and my plan has evolved from vague to insane, which is generally how my best plans begin.

She gives me my phone without a word. I take it like a sacred object.

It’s dead. Of course.

Marina also hands me a charger.

I take back every questionable thing I have thought about this house. Marina is an angel trapped among armed men.

The phone turns on after a few minutes, immediately flooding with missed calls, messages, panic, threats from numbers I don’t recognize, and one voicemail from Anya that is mostly “Sofia, answer the phone or I will commit a felony.”

I call her.