Levin looks at me sharply, but Valeria’s attention is already on me. “She must mean a lot to you,” she says thoughtfully. “What is this information worth, do you think? More than your friend is offering me?”
“He’s not going to make you any offers,” Levin cuts in. “And what I have is all you get, Valeria. I know very well the kind of payout you can expect from the name I’m handing you, so let’s stop this now.”
An irritated expression mars Valeria’s lovely face, probably her version of a pout. It’s clear she’s upset at him putting an end to her game, and she jerks her head at me, her eyes still fixed on Levin.
“Have him wait by the door,” she says irritably. “We’ll finish the conversation, just the two of us.”
Levin lets out an exasperated sigh, but nods at me. “Give me a moment with her, please,” he says, turning back towards Valeria.
It makes me more than a little angry to be cut out of the conversation regarding Sasha’s future, but I trust Levin enough to follow his instructions. I cast an equally irritated look back at Valeria, but get up, retreating to the door far enough away that I can’t hear their lowered voices.
When the conversation is finished and money has changed hands, Levin quickly retreats to where I’m waiting. “Let’s go,” he says sharply, and I follow him out without a word.
We don’t speak until we’re back at the hotel. “We’re driving back to Moscow tonight,” Levin says. “I’m not staying in the same city as her for even a night. She’s got something in her head, and I have no intention of being a part of it.”
“You think she’d come after you?”
“I think she got the idea that playing with me would be amusing, and she might decide to make good on that.” Levin gets his keys from the valet, sliding into the driver’s seat as I get into the passenger’s. “She won’t make a trip to Moscow over it, though. So we’re leaving now–and if she checks, our names are still checked in at the hotel.”
“You really think she’d get the upper hand on you?”
Levin shrugs, glancing over at me. “On me? Maybe not. On you? Abso-fucking-lutely. And you’re as much my job as Sasha is. I’m not going to let anything happen to either of you, if I can help it.”
“I appreciate it,” I tell him quietly. “I know you don’t want to be here. And I know this is putting you in danger, too.”
“What are friends for?” Levin says with a wry smile. “Anyway, the danger is part of the job. Better than doing paperwork in Viktor’s office, that’s for fuckin’ sure.”
It’s not until we’ve driven further that Levin finally glances over at me, his face set in an unreadable expression. “Valeria’s best tip for me was Obelensky’s daughter. She said that if she could be…convincedto help, that it would be our best chance in.”
“And if we’re not going to torture a woman to get to another one?” I look at Levin sharply. “That wasn’t anything we didn’t already know–and it’s not anything that we’re going to act on.”
“Valeria seems to think that this girl has some issues with her father’s methods,” Levin says slowly. “She’s unsure, but she thinks that she might be more willing to help us than I’d first thought. I’m suspicious of it. But our alternatives–”
He pauses, taking a deep breath. “To be frank, Max–we don’t have any. Not that I can see yet. We’ll see what Yusov brings back for us. But right now–”
“What else did Valeria say?”
“She gave me an idea of the layout of the compound and how many men Obelensky has there.” Levin lets out a sharp breath. “We’re not getting in there without someone who has better knowledge of it. It’ll be a suicide mission, and that won’t help Sasha.”
“I can’t let her die in there.”
“I know.” Levin rubs his free hand across his forehead. “I need to think and talk to Yusov. I know we’re running out of time. And believe me, Max, I know how you fucking feel. But we have to be smart about this.”
“Were you, when you went after Lidiya’s killers?” I know the question isn’t one I should ask, but it comes out anyway, the words strung tight. “Did you take the time to besmartabout it?”
Levin’s jaw tenses and I have the sudden feeling that if we weren’t in a car driving, he might have punched me in the jaw for what I just said. But he just sits in silence for a long moment, his gaze fixed on the road ahead, and then he nods.
“I was,” he says tautly. Silence lingers for another moment, and then he glances over at me.
“Because of that, they’re all dead. And I promise you this, Max, whatever small comfort it might be–if we don’t get to Sasha in time, we’ll kill every man who laid a finger on her, until they all join Lidiya’s murderers in their graves.”
15
SASHA
The biggest downside of Obelensky having put a rain check on the bullet with my name on it is that it’s left me with far too much time to think in my prison cell.
There’s very little that happens day to day. I lose track of time and how long I’ve been here, with no clocks or calendars or phones. I don’t want to ask the guards because, for the most part, they’ve ignored me, and I don’t want to draw their attention. I do my best to stay shrunk into a corner when they bring food or change the thin bedding on the cot, and I don’t speak. So far, it’s worked in my favor.