Lev groans in frustration. “Why do you have that look on your face?”
“What look?”
“The kind of look that suggests we’ve won the battle, but lost the war.”
“You’ll understand soon enough.”
“But you’re not going to tell me now?”
I press my lips together. “I don’t have the energy.”
“We are going to get her, Anton,” Lev says, misreading my contemplation. “She’s not going to get away this time.”
“I know.”
“Then make me believe it.”
I put my hand on his shoulder. “I need you to have my back, Lev. Today has more surprises in store for us.”
“I always have your back, Anton,” he says. “You know that.”
I nod. “Good.”
“Did we really need to pull over for this conversation?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, we did.”
He doesn’t ask me why. He just sits there with me, waiting for me to give him and the men the next command.
It’s how he’s one of the last people on this earth I can trust.