She shrugged her shoulders, answering without looking up from her phone. “I have nothing else to do. Unless I have stuff to work on, I’ll end up bored to death for the next five months.”
Then she looked up, a playful smile around her pretty mouth and my heart stopped for this beautiful woman. My reaction to this woman was a novelty to me. Usually women fell all over themselves for me. But not this one; she kept her composure while I was falling all over myself for her. “Are you scared I’ll understand what you’re saying?”
Sergei played along. “Are you sure you want to understand what we are saying in Russian?”
She wasn’t impressed. “Yes.” She went back to studying another word on the screen, focusing on it.
“Do you want to know,” I knew Sergei had to edge her on, “what Russians say when they orgasm?”
Anastasia blushed but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of having the last word. “Honestly, I don’t give a shit. But I’ll be sure he understands what I’m saying in English so he knows if he’s doing the job right.”
Both Nikolai and I burst into laughter, and Sergei followed as soon as he recovered. She rolled her eyes and went back to her phone.
“I swear, you three are so immature,” she muttered under her breath. “Killers by day and comedians by night.”
“Are you surprised?” Nikolai asked.
She finally gave up on studying Russian and turned off her phone. She stretched her back and rolled her shoulders releasing tension in them. It was a stressful day for her.
As she leaned against the chair, she replied to Nikolai, “No, I’m not surprised. Some discussions between my uncle and grandfather are totally idiotic. And I’m not talking politics either.” Her eyes traveled between us. “How old are you three anyhow?”
I watched her, careful to mask my interest. I wanted to see her reaction to my age. She was so young, and her background so different from mine.
“Sergei is thirty-four, Nikolai is thirty-six, and I’m thirty-eight.”
If our age difference bothered her, she didn’t let it show. At least until Sergei butted in, “Yeah, Dimitry is the old man among us.”
Her eyes shifted to him as if she was taking that into consideration. “You know, I had this class in med school that had a whole section on maturity of men. The conclusion was that men don’t mature until they turn thirty-five at minimum.”
“Ouch,” Nikolai cackled. “Sergei, you better stop talking.”
She shook her head. “You guys are in a weird mood. Are you done eating?”
She didn’t know when stress levels were high, Sergei tended to joke. Nikolai and I humored him. All three of us handled it differently, but together, we balanced each other well.
“Yes, thank you,” I told her. “Don’t worry about cleaning up. We’ll do it.”
We grew up without parents catering to us, we were perfectly capable of cleaning up. It was nice she wanted to help though.
“Thanks. In that case, I’m going to bed. It has been a long day and I’m ready to fall off my feet.”
Understandably, today was a shock for her. Most women would be in shock for days and weeks after seeing what she has today and for the past two weeks. But not Anastasia. She was a rock.
She got up, took her phone, and left us all behind. We went right back to strategizing our next move and getting Sergei’s men loading the vehicles with items we might need while in hiding or on the run.
Chapter Sixteen
Anastasia
Aloud explosion woke me up from the deep sleep. For a few seconds, I wasn’t sure if I dreamt it or if it really happened. Reaching out my hand in the dark, I felt around the bed hoping Dimitry was in the room.
“Dimitry,” I whispered in a low voice. My heart was pounding out of fear. After what happened yesterday, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he believed he wasn’t welcome to sleep in my bed. As stupid as it sounded, I wanted him to sleep in my bed. Although he killed a man in front of my eyes, and in cold blood, I still felt safe around him. Maybe it was counterintuitive and my shrink would tell me I need to check myself into the hospital, but I trusted my gut feeling.
Besides, how could I fault him for killing a man who was coming after me. To take me back to Boris. Cold fear swelled inside me but I quickly tampered it down.
Listening tensely at the sounds of the night, I waited for any sounds but heard nothing. Maybe I didn’t hear it, I just dreamt it.
Absolute silence lingered in the air, my breathing the only noise breaking it. Then the sounds of gunshots started, causing my body to jolt in terror. When the bedroom door busted open, it scared the shit out of me. I quickly scrambled off the bed and hid behind it.