Chapter 22
Chapter
Twenty-Two
Sage
It didn't seem like there was much to find when Isla and I first slipped through the back door. It wasn't until we made our way upstairs that it was clear we'd just missed a little gathering of Chet's men.
Isla has all the smarts, I'll admit, and she's the one that guesses it's been a week or two since they abandoned this place.
Through my eyes, I can only see the signs once she points them out.
The sleeping bags on the floor with a light spur of dust over the top.
The flame lantern that's cold and turned on its side. Empty food cans creating trip hazards.
It gives me the creeps.
I'll take her word for it but to me it feels like they could be back here at any second.
A rat scurries across the floor and I jump, dropping my flashlight as Isla chuckles at me. If a rat scurrying across the floor scares the shit out of me I'm not sure what I was thinking coming here. Or making a death promise.
I bend down to pick up my flashlight.
The floor creaks behind me, and I grab my flashlight, shrieking when I turn to find a face illuminated in front of me.
A familiar chuckle has my lip curling as I recognize the jet black hair, stormy eyes and mischievous smirk. Alexei laughs as he steps around me and I grab my chest to try and calm my breathing. Freddie is right behind him, a smirk on his face that I'll kill him for later.
"Seems like it was busy here," Freddie says, stepping over the sleeping bags on the floor.
"I'd guess we've missed them by about a week," Isla states, repeating what she told me earlier.
"Not Chet," Freddie says, stating the obvious. "He'd never live like this."
Alexei ignores them, walking over to a board full of clippings and notes. His tattooed finger runs over the papers, and he brushes them together to check for dust.
"Chet would've at least visited," Alexei says, distracted as he mumbles under his breath.
"How do you know?" I ask.
"Just a good guess," Freddie says, rushing to cut me off before Alexei can answer.
I step up beside Alexei to see what's on this board that has him so fascinated. It doesn't seem like a lot but the implication of what's pinned here has me gulping.
"It's you," Alexei says.
"And you," I point out, slapping my hand over where his picture sits right next to mine.
"They think we're the lynchpins," Alexei says.
He's right. The board is centered with our photos, but there are photos of all the others beneath us. Underneath Alexei, there is Isla and then Victor - Victor with a big red 'x' over his face.
Underneath me, there's Freddie, Anton, Dad and…
him. He has a big red 'x' over his face, too.
There's something cruel about it that I hate.
My eyes go heavy as I run my hand over the smile in the picture.
I haven't looked at a picture of him for as long as I can remember.
I wonder if I've forgotten what he looks like.
His smell, his laugh. Do I remember any of it? So much of it is clouded by the end.
"How come Victor and ugh, he, gets the big red 'x' but Dimitri doesn't?" Isla asks, pointing between the photos in confusion and gracefully not saying his name.
My heart stops, and I look at the board again. She's right. They've got the 'x's, but Dad doesn't. I share a look of concern with Freddie. I'm sure Isla notices. But at the very least this explicitly confirms to us that Chet knows Dad is alive.
While Angie had always said so, I'm not sure I believed it. Seeing it laid out here in big red ink slaps reality into me.
"Because it kind of looks like a checklist," Isla says, still studying the board. "He wants to get us all, and he's marked these two off, but not Dimitri. Why?"
"No way to be sure," Freddie says, taking over and trying to distract her. "All we know is that we're all targets and Chet has plans for all of us here. It's a complete tactical takeover."
"Looks like you're not enough for him, princess," Alexei says, a hint of venom in his tone as he mutters under his breath something that he tries to cover with a cough.
"You certainly weren't for me." I contemplate stabbing him right there and then.
I even reach for my knife before Isla looks at me in warning.
"It's not going to be enough to kill you both," Isla says. "He wants all Rushkoff and DeMarco taken out, so he can have the city to himself."
Alexei's energy still feels eerily calm. I wonder if something here has rattled him. Maybe this is grief. Maybe I'm just seeing what it looks like before his rage begins.
Alexei puts his hands in his pockets. "He's betting on the fact that we're fighting amongst ourselves right now. That's the only tactical advantage we have in all this."
Isla gives him a knowing look, like they've discussed this many times before and she's just won some kind of internal argument.
"But we're not fighting," I say. "Well, you and I are," I point between Alexei and myself, "but the collective we, we're not."
Isla claps Alexei on the shoulder. "Working together was a good call, Alexei. It's exactly what Chet was counting on you not being able to do."
He doesn't acknowledge her praise, but for the first time I realize how hard it must have been for him to walk onto my property and ask my uncle for help. How much he must have been fighting against to put all this above what I did to his brother.
I couldn't have done it.
"He needs us to be fighting," Freddie agrees. "Without Victor's support, he doesn't think he can take us both on."
I suppose it was only a theory, or at worst a stall tactic, that working together would give us enough leverage to hold Chet off and eventually best him. For me, it's a discovery. We really do need each other to do this.
"There's apparently only one more person more important than you," Isla says.
In the silence I find she's moved, and is stepping around from behind the back of the board now.
She waves a photo in her hand, stopping to hand it to me.
I take it carefully. The photo is far bigger than any of ours were.
It's a picture of a girl, but it's a view of the back of her head.
"Iz," I read aloud, running my hand over the caption at the bottom of the picture. All that can be seen in the blurry, over-exposed photo, is her long dark hair hanging down her back. Maybe the hint of pale skin in a red dress.
"Ever heard of an 'Iz'?" Isla asks.
I shake my head as Alexei steps up to look at it as well, shaking his head too.
"This was with it, too," Isla says, handing over a locket. I hold the gold chain up to the moonlight, squinting as it turns and shimmers, but it doesn't look familiar at all. I pull at the clasp, trying to snap it open, but it's sealed shut.
"Why would he leave this behind?" Alexei asks.
I drop the heart shape into my hand, and though I'm confused, I'm nervous to think there may be someone else out there, playing a role in all this, that I know nothing about.
A car rounds the street, headlights shining through the window.
"We should get out of here," Isla says. "In case someone shows up."
Freddie nods and he and Isla make their way towards the exit.
But Alexei and I just stand there staring at the locket. Both of us looking at it like we've never seen it before but also know exactly what it is.
I snap my hand closed around the locket and put it in my pocket.
Alexei looks up slowly to meet my gaze.
It doesn't matter how much my heart pounds when he looks at me. How much I crave his attention whilst at the same time being disgusted at myself for wanting it.
I look over at the board. The picture of him with the big red 'x'.
Nothing beats the feeling of loss that is blanketing my world.
Nothing Alexei could do or say could make that better. But this was a prudent reminder. It's been over a year now, and still I have failed. I'm forgetting his voice and his face. I'm also forgetting his revenge.
Nothing can be more important than finishing this.
Not Alexei's rough calloused hands on my skin. Not the way my body goes weak at the thought of his stormy gray eyes. Not the way my heart begs me to reach out and sink into him for as long as he will let me.
This will never go away until I get the revenge I desperately crave.
I look over at the board and steel my resolve. At the very least, thanking Chet for the reminder of who the real enemies are.