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Now we faced an unknown enemy, and I had a witness on the loose.

"I'm going to find her," I stated simply.

"And when you do?" Kostya pressed.

A slow smile spread across my face as I collected my cards. "I'll teach her the true cost of stealing from an Ivanov."

CHAPTER 8

ALINA

Ididn't go straight home. I couldn't.

Every time I considered heading toward my dingy apartment, a man would get on the bus and eye me a little too hard, or the skin on the back of my neck would tingle in warning.

Was it Pavel having me followed?

Or was he watching me?

Was he lurking in the shadows, waiting until I was trapped in my apartment?

Were his goons hiding in the shadows instead?

Waiting for me to head home. Then they'd send word to their boss?

My skin crawled, and my heart pounded so hard in my chest I thought it was going to crack one of my ribs.

I got off the bus and headed to the Metro.

First, I took the yellow line down into Virginia.

Then I took the blue line back up into DC just to switch over to the red to take me to Maryland.

For hours, I rode that line back and forth until I got onthe green and took that through DC again, connecting back to the red.

Over and over I got off at random stops and switched at different lines, crossing state lines through Maryland and Virginia back and forth seven, maybe eight times.

I wasn’t sure.

The count disappeared somewhere between the clammy heat of subway platforms and the numbing exhaustion seeping into my bones.

Every time I thought I might have been safe, I doubled back.

Dodging between train cars, I slid between doors at the last minute and then switched cars.

When I found an empty car, I stood in one of the cramped corners so I couldn't be seen through the windows.

I never sat down.

I never stopped looking around me.

Men like the Ivanovs didn't give up easily.

Thankfully, I knew the management office didn't have my real address. The second they told me the pay, and that I was not to see or hear anything, I knew I was taking a risk.

The pay was too good to turn down.

That didn't mean I had to be stupid.