Page 161 of Sexting the Pakhan

“Promise?”

He looks at me first, then back at her. “I promise.”

Mila accepts that and follows Nadia toward the kitchen.

I wait until they’re busy arguing over plates. Then I look at him. “What was that about?” I ask.

“What?” he says.

“Stepan… that name is familiar to me. He was your lieutenant, right?” I say.

He gives me a strange look, as if suddenly remembering he had made me a part of his life once, even if it was just for a couple weeks. “Yeah.”

“And you think it could be him?”

“I think it could be anyone.”

The answer makes my skin crawl.

I glance toward the kitchen, where Mila is singing softly to herself and Nadia is telling her not to put spoons in everyone’s cups because “that is not hosting.”

I lower my voice. “Is this related to what happened six years ago?”

Ruslan goes still.

His eyes move to mine. “Why do you ask?”

“Because six years ago men with guns came into a library, and you told me you found the mole. Then you sent me away like I was a problem solved.” My voice stays quiet, but the anger is there under every word. “Now men with guns show up at my daughters’ school, and again you’re talking about betrayal.”

He says nothing.

I step closer, keeping my voice low. “Is it connected?”

Ruslan looks toward the kitchen.

The girls are still distracted.

Then he looks back at me. “I thought Anton was the answer,” he says.

The name means nothing to me, but the way he says it does.

“Was he?”

“For years, I believed so.”

“And now?”

Ruslan’s jaw tightens. “Now I think I may have got the wrong man.”

21

RUSLAN

“Now I thinkI may have got the wrong man.”

The words sit between us.

Zoya doesn’t move.