Page 195

“Nikolai,” Sergei says, low. “Not here.”

Nikolai’s hand tightens.

I stand without realizing I’ve moved. “Nikolai, stop.”

He hears me then. I know he does. His shoulders shift, but he still doesn’t release Kirill. For the first time since we arrived, I see him losing control. His calm is cracking from the inside, and what is underneath it is so frightening that even his own men look unsure how close they can get.

Kirill chokes out, “I came when I heard Galina.”

Galina stands suddenly. “No,” she says.

Everyone looks at her.

She seems startled by her own voice. “No,” she says again, quieter. “You were already there.”

Kirill’s eyes cut to her.

Galina presses one hand to her chest. “I don’t know. Everything was...” She swallows, looking from Kirill to Nikolai. “Everything was a blur. I saw Miss Anya, and I screamed, and then you were there. But you were there too quickly.”

Kirill says, “Galina, I was coming from the hall. The old bitch has lost it.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Nikolai says.

Kirill stops talking immediately, but the damage is already done. Galina flinches as if he has put a hand on her. I look at her and see something in her face close, not fear exactly, but hurt. Real hurt. For all her stiffness, for all the careful ways she moves through the house like nothing can touch her, that lands.

Nikolai sees it too. His expression changes. “You forget yourself,” he says.

Kirill swallows. “Sir, I didn’t mean⁠—”

“You did.”

Sergei’s hand is still on Nikolai’s arm, but he is no longer pulling him back. The two other men have moved closer to Kirill. They don’t touch him yet. They wait.

Kirill looks from one face to another and seems to understand, maybe for the first time, that whatever loyalty he thought he had bought himself inside that house has limits.

“I was upset,” he says. “I saw Miss Anya like that. I was not thinking.”

Nikolai’s voice stays low. “You were thinking clearly enough to lie.”

“I didn’t lie,” Kirill says.

“You know what? That’s bullshit. What do you have to say about the charm you threw in the fountain?” Nikolai says quietly.

Kirill goes still. It’s quick, but I see it. The color drains from his face. “What charm?” he asks.

Nikolai’s expression turns colder. “The one Anya found near the fountain.”

Kirill shakes his head. “I don’t know anything about that.”

“No?”

“No.”

Nikolai continues, each word quieter than the last. “You told Sergei you were nowhere near the pool that day.”

“I wasn’t at the pool.”

“The west garden entrance camera caught you. The pool cameras were conveniently switched off.”