Page 19 of Broken Embers

Nikolas turns to glance at me. “No.” His voice is firm. “And I think we need to keep it that way.”

“I take it that means Rad doesn’t know either?”

“No.” He shakes his head again, pausing as if contemplating his following words. “Listen, Oleksi…” He turns to me briefly before looking back at the treacherous road. “You and Sabrina should never have gotten caught up in all this…”

“But we are,” I point out. “There is no going back now and no do-overs.” My eyes narrow as I look at his profile.

“There are enough of us involved already.” Nikolas’s grip on the steering wheel tightens, indicating his distress over something. “Fuck!” He hisses. “I warned Carla and Sol.” His eyes seek mine again for a few seconds. “I told them that as soon as Tara and Sabrina are old enough they need to tell them the truth.”

“I take it you were the one who helped them disappear?”

“Yeah, your aunt called me for help,” Nikolas explains. “I thought it was risky for Galena to set them up in Vegas so close to her. But Galena assured me that their friendship was a secret. Galena’s parents disapproved of her keeping company with people as high profile as Anya and Timofey.”

“And I’m guessing Carla’s parents weren’t happy about their daughter being friends with a known crime family!”

“Correct,” Nikolas confirms. “But that didn’t stop the RMSAD from knocking on your grandfather’s door to make sure Galena had nothing to do with Carla and Sol’s defection.”

“You mean Leonid and Mariya,” I correct.

“Right!” Nikolas nods. “We learn that once you’ve erased someone, you erase who they were and never refer to their former names. In most cases, we don’t even know their real names.”

“That seems smart.” I nod and turn to look out of the window.

The mountains close in — jagged, snow-slathered, their black teeth scraping the sky. The steppe is merciless out here. No softness. No mercy. Just like the world I’m from. And it seems, Sabrina never knew where she was from.

“If Carla and Sol had told Tara and Sabrina who they really were, we may not be in this situation right now,” Nikolas says.

“This is why you never wanted Sabrina and Radomir to come to Russia when they were looking for Leigh.” It suddenly dawns on me.

“Sabrina looks so much like her grandmother,” Nikolas says. “I was terrified she’d get recognized.”

“You should’ve just said something.” I shake my head and then smile, thinking of how much Sabrina looks like Anya. “But she does look like her grandmother. It’s like getting a glimpse into what she’ll look like at that age.” I give a snort. “Now I know why Sabrina is more than super smart too.”

Nikolas jerks towards me, and I see his eyes fill with shock, which makes me frown. We also nearly swerve off the road, but he has the vehicle under control in moments. With my heart beating in my throat and my fingers tingling with shock, I have to wonder why he’d be shocked by that statement.

“Do you not know how smart Sabrina is?” My brow furrows.

“What?” He gives me a confused look. “Of course, I know how smart she is. I’ve known her since she was a baby. She and my daughter have been best friends since they were three.” He pulls a face. “Trust me, I know how scarily clever she is.”

“Then why did you almost kill us when I mentioned it?” My eyes bore into his profile. “It’s not like it’s a state secret…” Fuck maybe it is. In Russia, anyway.

“Listen, there is something you should…” Before he can say more, he turns onto the road that leads to the coast and Dragunov Village and skids to a stop nearly sending me through the fucking windshield.

“For fuck’s sake, are you trying to kill me?” I glare at him.

“No!” Nikolas says. “But I think the snipers and those goons might.” He points to six heavily armed men dressed in Dragunov colors - red with black and a blue dragon emblem in the center of their black flak jackets, appearing from nowhere.

“Well, this is new!”

“And not good,” Nikolas adds. “Makes you wonder why they’ve all of a sudden started heavily guarding the entrance road to the village.

I wanted to ask about that myself, and make a mental note to ask theactingelder.

“What is your purpose here?” The one guard steps up to Nilolas’s window and asks as it goes down.

“We’re here to see Agofan, he’s expecting me,” I lean forward to tell them.

Another older man dressed in the same uniform walks over to the car and sticks his head in. I know him. “Hello, Oleksi.”

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