Chapter 3 #2
"I have solved the Jakub problem," I announce, taking out a container of Lo mein and sliding it to Nadia. "Lily was approached. By a woman asking questions. Claimed her name was Dahlia."
Nikolai's expression hardens, as he leans forward and I slide the container of orange chicken towards him. "Who the hell is Dahlia?"
"A friend of Jakub," I answer curtly, moving to the next bag filled with pork dumpling and beef chow fun. "But Lily also saw an idle ice cream truck across the street."
"Fuck," Nikolai snaps, stuffing a mouth full of white rice in his mouth.
Nadia swears under her breath as she pushes her food away too furious to eat. "How much time do we have?"
"Not enough," I say flatly, digging through the last bag and setting a container of steamed dumplings beside my untouched beef chow fun.
"No one saw me out back with Jakub and I took the maintenance elevator, but his body is still out there.
And it's only a matter of time before someone stumbles into the alley or, worse, the surveillance team gets brave and decides to look for answers. "
Nadia scrapes a hand through her hair, exhaling sharply through her nose. "Shit. I'll initiate a blackout. Scramble the digital feeds. Trigger an internal fire alert to evacuate the building. That'll stall whoever's watching the perimeter."
Nikolai grabs a paper napkin, wiping his mouth as he stands. His expression is unreadable, but his pale blue eyes are sharper than they've been all night. "I'll exit through the front, and play interference, lead them off your trail."
"Lily will leave with you since they have already seen her," I say coldly, leveling my gaze at him. "You are to walk her to the Two train and pick her up two stops away from here."
He grins grimly. "That's if they don't arrest me on sight."
Nadia's already at the wall console, tapping in her override code. Red light sweeps across the ceiling in slow pulses, warning of the internal lockdown that'll kick in ninety seconds from now. She looks back at me over her shoulder. "We all reconvene at the Queen's house. Thirty minutes max."
I nod once, already moving to the door. Neither of them argue.
Nikolai starts to pack up his food and get dressed in his winter attire, already calling his driver to swing around to the front to pick him up. Nadia gives me one last nod before slipping down the north wing hallway, vanishing toward her office to wipe her terminal.
I step back into the corridor, letting the conference door slide shut behind me.
Lily's pacing manically, twisting a lock of her hair, her yellow rain boots squeaking every third step.
Her curls bounce with each turn, the oversized scarf wrapped tight around her neck is loosened to the point that one side hangs a centimeter above the floor and she is one quick movement from stepping on it.
She mutters under her breath—and I only catch every third word something to do with Final Girls, nightmares and how insane the last twenty minutes have been.
"Next time, you call upstairs. You walk across the street to the bodega and ask to use the phone," she grumbles, moving her hands in a parallel motion as she instructs herself. "Why go down the alley? Stupid. I mean seriously the alley, be for real-"
She doesn't see me at first, but I cross my hands over my chest and lean against the wall.
"Lily," I say, just loud enough to make her spin.
Her eyes snap up, wide with worry, and relief floods her face like the tension in her shoulders snaps loose all at once.
"Look I get it," she says, the words tumbling out of her mouth before she can catch them. "I am a loose thread, and I shouldn't have been there, and you have a job. A killer job. And that job requires no loose ends and if I am one, I would just like to say-"
"You're leaving," I say simply, cutting off her procession of words, "Now."
"Oh, I thought if you were my murderer you'd be nicer about killing me," she mutters, grabbing her bright yellow backpack and smiling at me like she doesn't think I am going to kill her right now.
"But hey I get it. All good things come to an end, and everything you know like ends…
permanently and I am just happy it is you. "
The way the words tumble out of her mouth reminds me of the uncontrollable nature of a forest fire.
The tips of her ears get redder and redder.
Her eyes dart around the room as if she can't process every word and when she says I am just happy it is you her eyes squeeze shut as if I am going to kill her right here and now.
"I am not going to end you."
"Right," she lets out a huff of air and looks down at her hands. "I mean why would you do it here? It's so clean here. Just make sure I can have an open casket, and make it quick."
"I am not ending you at all," I growl, trying to get the spiral to stop, but when her eyes shoot back up to mine the panic in her hazel eyes only makes everything fucking worst.
"Aleksandr," she whispers, taking a step forward just as she would have done when we were kids, right before she poked me and ran, or stuck her tongue out, the way she hesitated before every movement she made around me.
"Don't torture me. I promise I won't tell anyone.
I mean most people say that in this situation, but I promise.
I mean I owe you guys so much and you don't… "
"Lily," I repeat, more firmly this time, stepping forward and gripping her shoulders before she can spiral again. Her skin is cold through the sleeves of her ridiculous daisy-covered jacket, and she's shaking just enough to make my hands clench tighter.
I lower my voice, my face close to hers. "Look at me."
She does—wide hazel eyes full of confusion and terror, as she scans my face for something, anything to expose me.
"I'm not going to hurt you," I say, my voice low enough that it settles in the space and slow enough that each syllable rolls over my tongue. "No one is going to hurt you."
She swallows hard, still holding my gaze. "I don't understand. What's going to happen to me?"
"I need you to leave the building with Nikolai," I continue. "Take the Two train, go two stops uptown, meet him in his town car. He'll take you to the Queen's house, while we figure out how long we have been watched by the police."
Her brows pinch. "Queens? I can't do Queens."
I blink, irritation rolling over my skin, but I swallow it before locking my eyes back with her golden gaze and through gritted teeth I ask, "Why?"
"King," she says, like it's obvious. "He's probably pissed on the floor by now. I already left him longer than I said I would, and if I don't show up soon, he's going to think I abandoned him."
I stare at her for a beat. "King? You can't go to Queens because of the King?"
"No, not the King. His name is King," she shakes her head in amusement, her dimples peaking out on her face again. "My dog, Aleksandr. My pitbull. He's emotionally fragile and he eats my mail when he's mad, remember Nadia got him for me for Christmas like four years ago?"
I sigh through my nose, jaw ticking. Of course she named the pure breed pitbull I got her for protection King, and of fucking course Nadia took credit for the Christmas present I got Lily. Now, how did this dog turn into an emotionally fragile, non-killing machine? I have no fucking clue.
I hear the conference door click open and look over my shoulder to see Nikolai is already ready in a long black coat, eyes scanning the hallway before landing on us. "Gwen is meeting us there with the kids. Ready Lil?"
"She is," I say before she can launch into another tangent. "She's going to meet you on 72nd street going up on the Two line."
"But King—" she starts again.
"I'll get your dog," I cut in, rubbing my hand over my face, because the apartment Lily insisted on is all the way in fucking Harlem, which is completely out of my way to the safe house.
She blinks at me in surprise. "You'd do that?"
"Alek-" Nikolia starts, and I know he is going to say that right now we have no time to get a dog before everyone needs to get to the safe house, but I cut him off.
"Just give me an extra fifteen minutes to get to the safe house before you go into lock down."
"His leash is on the hook to the right of the door, his collar is in the dryer, and he loves his stuffed bloody knife from Halloween," she says.
Digging into her pocket, she places a jangly ring of keys with a key chain that says where have you been loca on it, a whistle, and a rainbow tassel in my palm without question.
I smirk down at the display of keys and swallow the urge to hand them back and tell her that I already have a copy, stashed in the desk drawer of my office here, a copy in my car, and a copy in my house…for emergencies.
She doesn't need to know that right now. What matters is getting her the hell out of here.
Her fingers linger on mine for a second longer than necessary before she nods and turns toward Nikolai.
"Come on," she says, "the Two train is like never in my favor."
Nikolia taps my back firmly as he passes, following her to the elevator with a smile on his smug viking-like face and a shake of his head.
I look up to see Lily entering the elevator, and turning around to look at me with a shaky smile.
"Aleksandr," she calls back, and my eyes lock with hers. My name on her lips makes me weak even after all this time.
"Yeah?"
"Be safe."