I drop the bat. It clatters loudly on the wood floor.
“Pasha!” Karina gasps as she steps into the room. “What thehellhappened to you?”
Warm liquid rushes from my nostrils. It trickles around my mouth and drips down my chin. I’m still running on panic when Karina gently takes my shoulders and guides me into the kitchen.
Liya follows us into the kitchen. She folds her arms. She watches. She waits.
But she never steps in to help.
Karina soaks a cloth with warm water and starts cleaning my face. I wince when she passes it under my left eye.
“Sorry,” she whispers. “Liya, can you get an ice pack?”
The fridge door opens and then shuts. She extends her hand to me, and my heart shudders.
“I told you.” Liya keeps her eyes on the ice pack even after I accept it from her. “I told you not to go. He tried to kill you, didn’t he?”
“Not him specifically,” I retort. “And not at the meeting.”
Though it doesn’t help. Neither of the women in the room is amused by my response.
I clear my throat. “Two guys ran me off the road and jumped me.”
“I can see that,” Karina says while cleaning my chin. “I think your nose might be broken.”
“That’s the least of my problems.”
She sighs. “You know, you don’t have to be impossible. Andstay still. I can’t help you if you keep shuffling around.”
Liya holds my gaze. It’s the first time she’s really looked into my eyes since that conversation in the car where she sliced my heart to pieces.
“Where are they?” she asks in a low voice. “What did you find out?”
She’s all steel strength, but I see the sliver of fear hiding beneath the surface. The words are on the tip of my tongue, dancing right behind my lips, ready to fly out.
I’m just trying to figure out how to say it without her getting devastated.
Does it matter? She’s leaving.
Why do I care if she leaves in pieces or not when she finally takes off?
I push Karina’s hand away. When I hold the ice pack to my eye, I grit my teeth, exhaling hard as I lean against the counter.
“Willow is being sold,” I report. “And Zoya is dead.”
Chapter Three
Liya
The air is sucked from the room.
My mouth twitches ferociously while I tremble. I hug my shoulders tightly, trying to keep myself together while staring at Pavel. While looking at those emotionless glaciers. While trying to figure out what he means.
Willow is being sold.
And Zoya is dead.
I lick my lips to get them under control. I barely manage to ask, “What do you mean?”