Chapter 33 - Lilia
I snapped awake the moment I heard Gavril’s phone buzz.
It had been a fitful night, but I did manage to get some rest, which I was grateful for.
The whole evening before had been a drag on my system, from the conversation with the guard to getting snippy with Gavril when he came home hours later than he promised.
On high alert, I stayed in bed, completely still, straining to hear as he moved outside and down the hall to answer his phone.
I silently cursed the soft hum of the air conditioning as only bits and pieces of the one-sided conversation wafted back to me through the bedroom door, which he had left open in his haste.
“How many… the house?” was one snippet. Gavril sounded furious underneath his forced calm.
Then there was something about the Morozovs—he could count on them, but only if…
the rest was lost as he paced further away.
One more pass outside the room and I heard my own name, nearly bolting upright in bed.
I forced myself to lie there, relaxed at least on the outside. After a few more bursts of conversation that meant nothing, I heard him utter the name Petrov.
That was all I needed to know. Reuben was right that something was in the works, and it seemed like it was happening sooner rather than later.
That was why Gavril wanted to return to LA.
I heard him tell whoever was on the other end of the call that he’d be there this evening, which meant we’d be leaving soon.
Keeping completely still, I sensed him standing in the doorway.
Then he muttered a curse and stormed out.
Flinging off the covers, I scrambled to the hallway, listening to his heavy footsteps on the stairs and across the marble entry hall.
He was no longer trying to be quiet and slammed out the front door.
I raced across the hall to a front bedroom and peered out the window in time to see him climb into the borrowed sports car and speed off.
Where was he going? What was he planning? According to the snippets I had heard, something was already in motion. Perhaps he was flying out of there to give the final commands.
The fury this raised in me dulled the pain of my heart, which began wrenching into pieces the moment everything started clicking into place.
I really meant nothing to him. He had lied, and was now about to fire the gun he’d been aiming at my family since well before he rescued me from that auction stage.
Rescue. More like a prisoner transfer. Everything, all of it, had been lies.
Not knowing how much time I had until he came back, I raced to the closet and threw a few things into a bag, barely noticing what I took.
“What now?” I said to my harried reflection in the bathroom mirror. “What now?”
I knew what I had to do, and it made my blood freeze in my veins. What if last night had been nothing more than a test of my loyalty?
So what if it was? Could Gavril be angrier at me than I was at him, because I asked a few questions?
Steeling myself, I went downstairs, searching the halls and rooms down there for any sign of a guard.
There was the one stationed at the front, walking slowly back and forth under the shade of a palm tree, but the other three were keeping out of sight.
Perhaps Reuben would find me if I went on the deck again.
It was too stressful, just standing there waiting, pretending to look at the ocean rolling in as if it didn’t have a care in the world.
I envied its size and strength. Who could ever win against the ocean?
And yet, Gavril had pulled me safely out of its grip when I found myself in the undertow.
That was a chilling thought. My husband was more powerful than the ocean. And he had set his sights on everyone I loved.
Once again, there was an ache in my chest, as if Gavril had made it onto that list of people.
Why else would his ultimate betrayal hurt so much?
The sun crept over the mansion's roof, its glow making the white sand almost too bright to look at.
Shading my eyes, I scanned the neatly manicured garden path leading around the side of the house.
And then Reuben stepped out, a dark shadow among the overhanging palms and giant hibiscus bushes. He had a cap pulled low over his forehead to block the piercing sunlight, and he tipped it at me as he came into sight.
“Morning,” he said noncommittally. As if he’d never tried to let me know he was open to bribes.
“Come here,” I hissed, at the same time jumping down the stairs to meet him halfway.
“Is something wrong?” he asked, nothing but blank, professional concern in his eyes.
I wanted to shake him. “You tell me.” He only gave me the slightest shrug. “Tell me what you know,” I said, my voice rising. “Is my family in danger right now?”
The final words came out in a desperate wail, and with a scowl, he tugged me further among the trees that blocked a clear view from inside the house. “Be quiet.”
Impossible. “If you don’t—”
He cut me off. “I’ll tell you everything, but answer why I should trust you first.”
It was true enough that I could be testing him as easily as he might be testing me. The whole world we lived in was based on who was loyal and who wasn’t. Those who weren’t tended to have shorter lives if they weren’t cautious.
I wore shorts and a t-shirt, my feet were bare. I held out my hands. “Do you see anywhere I could hide a knife?” He snickered but remained steely. “And do you really think I would go against my one family for Gavril Bocharov or the Collective?”
“I don’t know, you two seem awfully close.”
I didn’t deign to reply to that, and we stared at one another for a tense moment that seemed to drag on forever. “Were you serious about your offer last night?” I asked.
“I was serious when I said I believed your family would win this,” he said, holding up an ominous finger. “But there will be heavy casualties if it goes down the way it’s planned.”
“Let me warn them,” I pleaded. “Just let me make one phone call.”
He shook his head. “Not here. I can’t risk it.”
I nodded, thinking it through. The second my family heard my voice and learned what was going on, they’d go on the defensive, sending their contacts here in Miami to rescue me. Gavril would be aware that he had a mole in his midst within half an hour. Reuben would be dead shortly after that.
The prospect of being swept away from Gavril gave me mixed feelings, so I shoved those thoughts away. I wasn’t in any danger. My cousins were. All I wanted to do was warn them.
“Then we need to leave,” I said.
The guard’s eyes narrowed, but he quickly determined how utterly serious I was.
“Get some shoes on, don’t bring more than you can carry in one hand, and meet me back here in ten minutes,” he said, pointing down the beach where a treacherous line of rocks jutted out of the sand and led into the water.
“There’s a blind spot on the cameras over there.
We’ll need to get in the water and swim for a bit. ”
I shuddered, thinking about the ocean’s heavy hands grabbing me once more, and no Gavril to pull me out this time. But my family needed me. My warning might be the only thing that saved them.
“Can you handle this?” Reuben asked roughly.
Just one thought of my sister’s face, wracked with pain caused by a torturer’s tools, was enough to steady me. This wasn’t just about my freedom; it was about their lives. I pulled myself together, ignoring my fears and shoving down the ache that kept cropping up, squeezing the breath out of me.
“I can handle this,” I told him, and turned to get ready to escape, once and for all.