Page 26 of Twisted Fate

Not on my watch, I think grimly as I towel off and slip into a pair of sleep shorts and a tank top. I’m the only assassin who’s going to kill Konstantin Abramov.

I don’t sleep well. I toss and turn, my dreams fractured and full of that waiter coming for Konstantin, of me failing to stop him, of Kane looming over me and wagging his finger like a hag in a fairytale, telling me how many more years of servitude I’ll have to pay for my failure.

Interspersed with all of it are dreams of Konstantin alive and well, in my bed, his hands roving over my body as he gives me everything that he won’t give me in reality.

When I wake in the early morning, I’m damp with sweat and still exhausted. I take another cold shower, put on a thin linen maxi dress, and head out to the patio to sip a cup of coffee while I wait for Konstantin to wake up.

An hour passes. I scroll through the resort’s excursions, trying to think of something else that might give me a chance to finish the mission. My thumb on the screen stills as I see one of their exclusive offerings pop up—an overnight camping trip in the park.

I click on it, the wheels of my mind spinning as I consider the possibility.

We’d be taken out there by a guide, who would camp some distance off and pick us up in the morning.

There’s a warning on the website about the dangers of the excursion—that the resort can’t be held liable for anything that might happen to guests out in the park while they’re unobserved by a guide.

Wildlife is mentioned—baboons, lions, snakes—as well as potential inclement weather.

I bite my lip, reading through it again.

I’m not the most outdoorsy of girls. I like the beach, and I enjoy a good camping trip from time to time—but the kind that takes place in a cabin, with bear-proof locks.

The idea of camping out in the open Serengeti with so little protection makes my stomach feel a little queasy…

but so does the potential of failing my mission.

I’ve dealt with more dangerous things than lions, I think, bolstering my courage as I click on the booking link. All I’ll have to do is talk Konstantin into going along with the trip, which won’t exactly be easy, but?—

My train of thought is abruptly cut off—along with the link on my screen—as Kane’s name flashes on it instead.

I glance hurriedly toward the curtain leading to Konstantin’s room. He’s still asleep, so far as I can tell. I get up quickly, ducking back into my own room, and answer, keeping my voice hushed.

“Yes?” I glance toward the door separating my room from Konstantin’s and move as far from it as possible.

“Progress report?” Kane’s voice is clipped, businesslike. I swallow hard.

“I’m working on it.” I glance nervously toward the door, biting my lip. “It’s been… complicated.”

“Complicated?” The displeasure in Kane’s voice is evident. “What could be so complicated, Valentina? He should be dead by now.”

“He won’t sleep with me.” I bite out the words. “On our wedding night, he informed me that we’d have separate bedrooms. He won’t fuck me until he wants a child. Which, evidently, is not right now.”

Kane lets out a sharp, disbelieving laugh. “So change his mind. Aren’t you on your honeymoon?”

“I’m trying,” I hiss. “He’s… difficult. We have separate bedrooms here, too.”

“You’re fucking kidding me.” I can practically hear Kane shaking his head on the other end of the line. “So seduce him, Valentina. You’re a beautiful woman. Stunning and sensual. This shouldn’t be an issue for you?—”

I shove down the discomfort at hearing Kane—the closest thing I have to a father—describe me that way, and focus on the conversation at hand.

“He’s not as susceptible to it as you would think.

I’ve been trying . And last night—” I take a deep breath, relaying the incident with the waiter to him.

“I stopped him. I know you want me to do the job, not allow someone else to do it for me. But the point is that someone else is trying to kill him, too. I need to know who might want to, Kane.”

“Interesting.” The line is silent for several seconds. I glance nervously toward the door again. “I was unaware that anyone else wanted Konstantin dead. I’ll have to do some research on this.”

“Should I—” I hesitate, biting my lip. This mission has become complicated in more ways than one, but I don’t want Kane to take me off of it.

I know if he does, he won’t follow through on his end of the deal, because I won’t have finished mine.

I’ll still be indentured to him, and I won’t get the name.

“No,” Kane says firmly. “This changes nothing. Complete your mission, Valentina, however you can manage to do it. I'll look into who else might want Abramov dead, but you stick to the plan."

Relief washes over me, at the same moment that I feel apprehension knot my stomach, in a strange tangle of emotion. "Understood.”

"Don't disappoint me," he adds, his voice dropping, a low warning there that makes my skin prickle. "You're so close to getting what you want. Don't throw it away now."

The line goes dead. I toss the phone onto the bed, following it a moment later as I flop down onto my back, closing my eyes as I attempt to calm my pulse and regulate my breathing.

Four days. Four days to kill Konstantin, while evading whoever else might be trying. If I’m lucky, that assassin last night was the only one, and I’ll be free and clear to focus on him from here on out.

If I’m not?—

I grit my teeth, forcing the thought out of my head. I can’t plan for that, not until Kane finds out more information. I can only react. And I need to focus on what I can control.

Kane is right. I'm so close to finally learning the truth about my parents' murders, to getting the revenge I've spent my entire life working toward. I can't falter now, not when I'm one kill away from freedom.

I pick up my phone again, looking at the excursion. A private night away. One where Konstantin won’t be able to send me to another room or put a door between us.

It’s dangerous, but it might just be my best shot.

—

About an hour later, I hear Konstantin emerge from his room, and the sound of breakfast being served. I take a moment to compose myself before heading out to meet him, and I sit down across from him at the breakfast table, keeping my expression as neutral as I can.

He looks up from his tablet. “Sleep well?” he asks, without a hint of irony in his voice. I bite back the reply I want to shoot at him, and smile instead.

“I slept fine.”

“Good.” He reaches for his coffee, and I take a breath.

“I found something I’d like to do.”

He raises an eyebrow, and I push my phone toward him, the excursion page lit up on the screen. “It’s an overnight camping trip in the park. Just the two of us, although a guide will be a little ways off, if we were to need something. I think it would be fun.”

Konstantin’s brows knit, and I keep speaking hurriedly, before he can say anything.

“I’m not trying to get you alone for any…

reasons,” I say quickly. “I get it. You want to keep things… businesslike, for now. But this sounds fun. And I want to have fun, while we’re here.

Plus, after what happened last night, maybe it would be good to get away from the resort for a night?

Just, you know, while they’re looking into it. ”

He presses his lips together, scanning the screen. “I hadn’t pegged you for being so outdoorsy,” he says finally. “Especially after what happened on the safari.”

“I’m sure it’s safe.”

“It says right here that it might not be.” His eyebrow twitches. “I’m not sure about this.”

“I stabbed a man last night, Konstantin. You almost got shot.” I reach across the table, laying my fingers over his hand that’s touching my phone.

“I just want to put a little space between us and here, even if it means going out on a limb, so to speak. I think it would be exciting. And really, it can’t be that dangerous.

They wouldn’t have it if guests were regularly getting hurt.

It’s probably just the stupid ones who wander off or don’t follow instructions and get into trouble, and neither of us is stupid or careless. ”

Konstantin chuckles dryly. “That’s true enough.” He glances over the page again, before pushing the phone back toward me. “Sophia?—”

“Please.” I don’t have to fake the plea in my tone. I truly don’t know how I’m going to accomplish this mission if I can’t get Konstantin alone for a night—really alone.

He gives me a long, searching look, and I wonder what he’s thinking. If he’s remembering last night, and the fact that I saved his life. If he’s thinking that he owes me because of that.

Konstantin lets out a long breath. “Fine,” he says at last. “Overnight camping trip it is.”

—

By late afternoon, we're bouncing along a dirt track in an open-sided Land Rover, our guide pointing out wildlife as we go. It’s still uncomfortably hot, the sun beating down mercilessly, but the breeze created by the movement of the vehicle keeps it bearable.

What isn’t as bearable is how, every time the truck jolts over a rough spot in the ‘road,’ Konstantin’s muscled thigh brushes against mine.

I’m not opposed to the idea that we might sleep together before I kill him tonight.

I’m hoping that’s what happens—that the romance of the evening, coupled with the closeness of finally sleeping in the same space, frays his self-control to breaking and he finally gives in.

It would be a shame to kill him without finding out how good this could be between us.

Or maybe it’s better if I don’t know. I was too glad that he survived last night. Too relieved to see him in one piece. I shouldn’t have cared, other than because the fact that he survived meant he was still alive for me to kill.