I should know. Jonas did it all the time.
I sit back. “Fine, then.”
Exasperation hangs heavy in the air. I can’t stand the feeling of it. The car takes a ramp slowly and then circles around to a ramp that leads back the way we came. Pavel takes a sharp breath. When I look at him, his face is blank and his pupils are huge. He blinks a few times to clear the expression from his face and then holds the phone up.
Two words sit on the screen.
No picture. No other threats. Just two deadly words.
Wrong move.
The sight of those words does something irreversible to my system. A medley of thoughts race one after the other, but nothing cohesive sticks. I can’t capture anything. Because I don’tknowanything.
I have no idea what Cardona has in store for us—for Zoya.
I shiver. “We’re fucked, aren’t we?”
“That’s one thing we can agree on right now, Liya.”
“This is all my fault.”
I notice he doesn’t agree with that. But he doesn’t deny it either.
I’m not sure which one I prefer right now.
The car jolts forward, scaring me into the reality I’ve created. Without knowing what Cardona might do next, I can’t come up with an action plan. I feel frozen, useless, rejected.
We should’ve set up a meeting point.I think bitterly.We should have been there to get Zoya immediately instead of meeting her at Berkowitz’s choosing.
If I had done that, then Zoya would be in our custody instead of frightened and tied to a disgusting excuse of a man. I need to pick up the pieces. I need to clean up my mess.
“We have to do something,” I tell Pavel. “We need to…I don’t know. Plan an attack.”
He shakes his head. “There’s nothing to be done. You kicked the hornet’s nest, Liya.”
“That’s ridiculous, Pavel.”
But it isn’t. He’s right. Making a blind move will only make this worse. There’s nothing for us to do but wait. Even if it means imagining the worst. Even if it means I’m plagued with nightmares. Even if the guilt kills me.
I have to wait. It’s the only choice left.
A question sits on my lips, one I’m not sure I should dare to ask. Yet not having the answer is going to keep me up at night.
“What’s going to happen to Zoya?”
A pause extends between us. I hear him shuffle again and realize that he’s looking at me.
“All bets are off, Liya,” Pavel says, a pained expression on his face. “The real war has begun.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Pavel
“Manhattan is gripped by fear tonight with shootings happening…” The voice from the TV drones. I change the channel, but it’s more of the same.
“Police are searching for an assailant in Queens who shot and killed an armed officer on the corner of…”
“We’re scared. It’s nuts out here, man. Absolutely nuts.”