She seems to have calmed down slightly. There’s a little more color in her cheeks now and she’s not breathing quite so hard.
She looks at me for a second and then reaches up to curve her hand against the side of my face. “I do trust you, Anton,” she whispers softly. “I’m just so scared.”
“I know. But you don’t have to be. I’m going to take care of that bitch once and for all.”
“What if it’s too late by then?”
“I’m going to do my best to protect Chris as well,” I assure her.
Her lip trembles again as a fresh wave of sobs threatens to swallow her up. “But you can’t promise me that he’ll be okay, can you?”
“I think you know the answer to that,” I admit. “But I know Marina. She took Chris for a reason and that reason was to lure us in. She only starts hurting people when she has something to lose. For now, Chris is just a card she’s waiting to play.”
I can tell she’s close to dead on her feet. I pull her towards the bed and force her to sit down on it. “You need to sleep. Lie back.”
She does as I say, but her eyes stay fixed on me. “Anton, can you stay with me?”
I hesitate for only a moment. Then, sighing, I slide into the bed beside her.
She places her head on my chest. “I feel so guilty,” she whispers after a long silence.
“This is not your fault, kotyonok.”
“No, not because of that. I mean, a little bit because of that. But this guilt is for something else.”
“What’s that?”
“The fact that I feel so… safe right now,” she says, her voice strained and shaky. “I feel so safe here with you. And I have no right to feel that way when Chris has been abducted by that psycho.”
I wrap my arm around her and pull her close. “Don’t feel bad for feeling safe, Jessa. Chris wouldn’t want you to feel guilty.”
She glances up at me. “I wish there was something I could do.”
“Trusting me is something.”
“I already do.”
“Then close your eyes and let that be enough.”
She does. After a few minutes, her weight sinks into me and her breathing becomes more relaxed.
When I’m sure she’s asleep, I disentangle myself from her and get off the bed. I pull the blinds closed and head back downstairs to my office. Both Lev and Yulian are in there waiting for me.
“She has the friend?” Yulian asks.
“Yes.”
“How is Jessa?”
“Distraught,” I say. “She feels guilty.”
“And Marina is getting bolder,” Yulian points out.
“It’s not boldness,” I reply. “It’s desperation. The bitch is cornered and she knows it.”
“We still don’t know how much support she has,” Yulian reminds us.
“If she had more support, she’d have made her move already. Marina’s never been the patient type. She likes making herself known. She’s too damn opinionated to keep her mouth shut for so long.”