Page 34 of Fate and Family

“No, Uri and I barely made it out.”

“Is anyone hurt?”

“My knee has seen better days—jacked that up pretty bad.” Markus clears his throat. “Uri was shot in the side. It’s a pretty small injury, but he’s being such a baby about it.”

“I am not. It fucking hurts,” Uri snaps.

I only care about the important question. “Are you safe to travel?”

Markus’s voice lowers. “Yeah, but it’s going to be slow-going. Public transit and the police, once loyal to Koslov, can’t be trusted anymore.”

The words sting. Dimitri and I bailed without even thinking. Were we followed? Do we need to jump ship again or lay low?

“Who else is with you?” my partner asks.

“Dimitri is the only one I was able to get out.” I swallow hard. “The team...”

“Yeah, I saw. We went back to the safe house for protocol.”

“We’re in Helsinki.”

“Stay there. We’ll come to you.”

Uri’s voice rings through the phone. “Hey, Dimitri.”

Dimitri’s entire face lights up—joy and relief battling for dominance as he takes the phone from my hand. “Yeah?”

“Remember when I told you Katya has a secret?”

He glances at me, a frown etched across his face. “I do.”

“Turns out she’s a spy.”

“Yep.”

“She’s been saving our lives for a while.”

“I am aware.”

“So don’t be too pissed at her.”

Dimitri hangs his head over his porridge, which is growing colder by the second. “I’ll think about it.”

Uri adds, “Svetlana sold us out to the Smirnovs and I think they’re in bed with The Deviant.”

Dimitri slams his hand on the table. “That fucking bitch! She killed our entire family because I dumped her?”

The man behind the counter glances up from his newspaper. I cough and he goes back to reading. I’m glad we’re the only ones in the cafe this early in the morning.

“Well, she’s been feeding the Smirnovs information for months now.”

He growls. “I'll kill her.” And for a second, I think he might hop back on a train to do it.

“Don’t bother. The Deviant got to her first.” Uri’s voice quiets. “Some old guy shot her. Markus thinks she was feeding him information and since she wasn’t as useful anymore…” He clears his throat. “I saw the video. She got what she deserved.”

It’s hard to tell how Dimitri feels. His face contorts, thick lines criss-crossing everywhere.

I reach for the phone and as I pull it away from his face, my fingers brush against his cheek. He doesn’t flinch. Watching Dimitri for some cue of how he's going to react, I say, “Come to Helsinki. Ditch these phones and post in that other fandom’s thread when you get here.”

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