Page 27 of The Fixer

Waving off her concern, I exhaled a satisfied sigh at how all of this played out. Squeezing Ophelia to my side, I ran a hand through my hair roughly. My mouth dried while we descended the steps; I’d been to Saint Petersburg enough to know where the train station was, at the very least. “We’ll walk until we find a bus stop. There’s some things we need to talk about, Oppie.”

She hummed softly in agreement.

I hoped beyond hope Malda wasn’t listening in on our conversation. Making it to the gravel drive, I cleared my throat roughly before opening my mouth, “What else did you say to Envre?”

“I knew she wasn’t just checking on me to be nice, so I didn’t tell her anything. Why?”

Hesitation gripped my heart, but I couldn’tnotbring up what Envre had revealed.

Curious eyes bored holes into my face. “What did she say I said?”

“She said Aleksander threatened to marry you off like Vyachaslav did to your parents.”

Ophelia stiffened, her gait failing mid step as she gasped.

Pausing to catch her eyes, I clenched and released my jaw a few times against the anxiety that threatened to lock it. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I-I had time to ignore it, s-so I did.”

I didn’t believe this at all.

Ophelia tore her eyes off me to scuff her heel against the gravel. “Okay, maybe ‘ignore’ is a strong word. I just—I didn’t want to acknowledge it until I really had to.”

“So, when you said he would replace you, you knew he really meant that he’d find a puppet and use you anyway.” I fought a grimace. “Why did you suggest you wanted to wear the ring I gave you for your birthday?”

She lowered her head. “Because I thought that if I did only have two months, it’d be my only chance to wear it. My parents hated each other, but you know why they never divorced? Why they lived together, why they had kids together? Because Vyachaslav threatened to kill them if they didn’t do what he wanted.” Hugging herself, Ophelia sighed heavily, sadly. “You have no idea how awful it is to be threatened with anything by a man like Makovich.”

With this confession, my heart throbbed painfully. “If you don’t tell me what’s happening, how am I supposed to get an idea of how awful it is, Oppie?”

She just shook her head sullenly.

I closed the distance between us. Once again, I wrapped my arm around her. “Let’s go home.”

18

Ophelia

“Your phone’s off, right?” Sasha asked.

Licking my lips heavily, I nodded as my hand went to my pocket automatically. Malda had assured me she didn’t listen in, but we couldn’t just take her word for it.

Sascha sat back as the train sped out of Saint Petersburg, leaving that horrible city and horrible family far behind. “What did you find out?”

“I’m pretty sure it was an inside job.” My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth at his highly arched brows— the quick tilt of his head. “I think Vyachaslav either instigated it or let it happen. I don’t know why, but the aftermath makes it the most likely scenario.”

“Thefuckkind of man tries to assassinate himself?”

Shrugging lightly, I splayed my fingers in helplessness; I’d asked myself that same question. The facts didn’t lie, though.

Scratching his beard roughly, Sascha sunk into his seat with a frown. “Aleksander’s whole spiel is power to the people, right? In order to bring Russia up, he needs to have that power if he wants to spread it. Russia’s never been in a good way, and it’s particularly bad right now. The Ruble is .016 of the U.S. Dollar…”

“Yeah. The only thing I can think of is that either the attempt on the Patriarch can either really help Aleksander, or it can really help someone or something else. The families arenotknown for their independent thinking of the greater good. Historically, they’re important because most of our business had shared risk. You out someone and you out yourself as well. Ever since Aleksander took over, he’s pumped attention on himself and the socialist fronts he’s created. He’s going to run for office. That’s the obvious thing.” Sascha’s surprised expression told me my assumption was only obvious tome. A sigh built in my chest.

“Everyone thinks they can do it better than the last time,” Sasha stated. “Aleksander’s entire economic presence is based on equal wealth distribution appropriate to skill. If you read the business model on Makovich’s website, it reads like everyone has a price. Doctors, lawyers, garbage men, call center representatives… they all have an intricately determined price tag.”

“That’s definitelynotthe first place my mind would go if someone tried to assassinate me. How would killing his dad do him any good?” Russia at the moment was a democracy, but anyone with eyes knew this country was in a bad state.

Sascha’s eyes narrowed, as he seemed to put the pieces together, his head tilting curiously. “You think he’s going to run for Prime Minister? If that’s true, how would anything like an assassination work for him?”