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“Okay.”
“And make sure it’s just the truck that gets blown up this time,” he barks and cuts the call.
I throw the last of my knives, turn on the lamp, and walk toward the narrow wooden board mounted on the opposite wall to inspect my hits. Two of the knives landed a little below the target. I’m getting rusty. I pull out the knives and stroll back across the room. Focusing on the white line painted horizontally along the wooden board, I turn off the light again.
* * *
Twenty minutes later I leave my room and head downstairs to look for Felix.
“Albert!” I shout.
He hates it when I call him that, so I make sure I always do. Serves him right since he decided to play my butler instead of spending his retirement at a sea cottage like he should have done when the military let us leave. He never told me exactly how he managed to get us released from our contracts.
“Albert! Where did you put our C-4 stash?”
“In the pantry!” he yells from somewhere in the kitchen. “The box below the crate with potatoes.”
I snort. And they say I’m the crazy one. I circle the stairs and open the pantry door. “Where?”
“Eleven o’clock. Watch your head!”
I turn to the left and smack my skull on the golf equipment bag hanging from the ceiling. “Jesus! I told you to keep your crap in the garage!”
“Not enough room,” Felix says from behind me. “Why do you need the C-4?”
“Roman needs me to blow up some shit tomorrow.”
“Another Italian warehouse?”
“A truck with their drugs this time.” I remove the crate with potatoes and reach for the box. “You can’t store explosives with food, damn it. I’m taking this to the basement.”
“I need the day after tomorrow off,” he calls after me. “I’m taking Marlene to the movies.”
I stop and look him in the eyes. “You don’t work for me. You’re a pest I’ve been trying to get rid of for years—one who won’t leave. I live for the day you finally move in with Marlene and get off my back.”
“Oh, I won’t be moving in with her anytime soon. It’s too early.”
“You’re seventy-one! If you wait much longer, the only place you’ll be moving into is the fucking cemetery!”
“Nah.” He waves his hand as if it's nothing. “My family is known for longevity.”
I close my eyes and sigh. “I’m doing okay. You don’t have to babysit me. Marlene is a nice lady. Go live your life.”
The carefree mask vanishes from Felix’s face as he grinds his teeth and fixes me with his gaze. “You are far from okay, and we both know it.”
“Even if that’s true, I’m not your responsibility anymore. Leave. Let me deal with my shit alone.”
“You sleep through the night, the whole night, three days in a row and I’ll leave. Until that happens, I’m staying put.” He turns and heads to the kitchen, then throws over his shoulder, “Mimi knocked over the lamp in the living room. There’s glass everywhere.”
“You didn’t clean it?”
“I don’t work for you, remember? If you need me, I’ll be in the kitchen. We’re having fish for lunch.”
Chapter 2
I’m lying under the truck, setting up the second pack of explosives when Mikhail curses somewhere on the other side.
“Sergei! Are you done?”
