Lying and Kissing(62)

“Between your thighs,” he rumbled. “But what about the rest of the time? I am what I am, Arianna, just like my father.”

I grabbed his hand. “Not just like your father. You’re your own man.”

He laughed gently and shook his head. “You want me to rebel and open a coffee shop in New York with you? That isn’t how the Brotherhood works. You don’t leave. This is my life. This will always be my life.”#p#分页标题#e#

“But you could do it...I don’t know...your own way. Like making sure the guns don’t get handed out to teenagers.” It wasn’t that I was hung up on that one thing. It was that, if he could make that one concession, I’d know there was hope for him.

He studied me. Then he leaned forward and kissed my forehead and rested his own head against the tingling mark he’d made. “My father ran most of Moscow for many years. Everyone respects him. Everyone fears him. I have a lot of...expectation riding on me.”

I nodded, letting him feel the movement of my head against his. Both of us had our eyes closed, which I think is what made the next part possible.

“Your father’s dead, isn’t he?”

I nodded again, feeling the pain rise up into my throat, a jagged lump of ice.

“Your mother, too?” he whispered.

I nodded again. This time, a tear fell down between us and hit his thigh.

His arms tightened around me. “I’m sorry, Arianna.” He just held me for a long time. Then he said, “My father is all I have left. I can’t just go against him.”

I nodded, fresh tears forming in my eyes. I wasn’t supposed to know what his dad had said about me, so supposedly we were still talking about the gun deal. But I knew he was meaning breaking up with me, too. He was going to do just what his dad wanted and dump me as soon as we got back to his penthouse.





We landed at a tiny airfield just outside Moscow. One of Luka’s many guards met us with a car and Yuri got behind the wheel.

I immediately began to translate each billboard we passed, to try to get my mind off the fact I was sitting in a car. I’d spent more time in cars in the last few days than I had in the previous few years and it hadn’t gotten any easier. On the outward trip, focusing on Luka had made it bearable but now, with both of us consumed by our thoughts, there was just tense silence. Even Yuri looked uncomfortable.

I had maybe twenty minutes until we reached his penthouse. Then he’d dump me and have Yuri drive me back to my hotel. I’d call Adam and he’d get me on a flight the same day. By tomorrow, I’d be back at my desk in Langley and I’d never see Luka again. And within weeks, he’d go to jail for the rest of his life.

Everything that had happened between us was about to be wiped out.

Luka’s cell phone rang. As he listened to it, I saw his body tense and coil with anger. I stared out of the window and tried to look oblivious, as if I didn’t understand the flurry of curses and questions I heard. They had set up in Moscow. No mention was made of a name but, from the tone of Luka’s voice, I suspected it was his arch rivals, the Ralavich family. The ones Luka always claimed were much, much worse than him. I heard where and how many and finally Luka told the guy he’d take care of it and hung up. He gave Yuri an address and we turned off the highway and towards a housing district.

Luka looked at me. “I must go and attend to something,” he told me. “You will wait in car.”

I nodded dumbly. I could see the rage in him—the way his muscles had gone hard under his suit, the fabric barely containing those thick biceps and broad chest. He looked as if he was ready to tear his way right out through the car’s roof. But it didn’t feel as if he was angry at me. What was it his rivals had done that had got him so mad?

Soon, we were driving through a residential street made up of what were once fine townhouses. The street had seen better days, but the cars parked outside were expensive. Luka leaned across me to stare at the doors as we passed, counting off numbers to Yuri. We stopped right outside number 112.#p#分页标题#e#

Yuri and Luka both got out. “Stay here,” Luka told me, his voice making it clear he’d tolerate no arguments. I nodded dumbly.

Yuri unlocked the glove box and handed Luka a gun with what I recognized as a silencer screwed on the end, taking another for himself. I watched through the window as the two of them climbed the steps to the door. Luka knocked, hiding his gun behind his back.

The door opened a crack and I got a brief glimpse of a heavyset man with a bald head. Then Luka was shoving his gun through the crack and I could just hear the faint whisper of silenced shots.