Page 264 of Sexting His Assistant

“What?”

“I told him Misha knew,” she says. “I told him Misha was asking questions. I told him he was trying to find out who was leaking information from Luka’s side.”

I cannot speak.

Alina’s voice breaks. “I thought I was buying time. I thought if Oleg knew Misha was suspicious, he would back off or shift the plan. I don’t know what I thought. I was terrified, and I made everything worse.”

“You gave him Misha.”

“I know,” Alina says. “I know what I did. If he’s dead, it’s because of me.”

“Don’t say that.”

“I don’t know where he is,” she says. “I don’t know if he’s alive. I don’t know what they did to him after he disappeared. I’ve been sitting here for days thinking that if something happened to him, it’s because I gave Oleg his name.”

I feel sick.

I want to deny it. I want to tell her Misha is alive because Misha has always been too stubborn to die, too protective to leave me without a fight.

But I don’t know.

That is the worst part.

I don’t know anything.

“Did he bring you here?” I ask.

She nods. “Yes, this was supposed to be a safehouse, he was supposed to come back right after, but it’s been more than twenty-four hours now.”

I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding in. My brother was here yesterday… if only I had made the choice to run away earlier.

“He thought if we came clean to Luka about everything, he would understand and forgive me for what I had done, we were just waiting for some concrete proof, and Roman was helping us with that.”

“Misha didn’t make it to Luka’s house,” I say, something cold spreading in my body.

She frowns. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” I say. “I was with him.”

But if he didn’t come there, where is he now? Why haven’t we heard anything from him?

Alina wipes her face with both hands. “There’s something else.”

I look at her. “What?”

“Oleg wasn’t working blind,” she says. “He knew things he shouldn’t have known.”

“What kind of things?”

“At first, I thought he was guessing, or that he had people watching from outside. But Misha said it was more than that. He said someone close to Luka had to be feeding him information.”

“Someone inside?” I ask.

“Yes,” Alina says. “Misha was trying to find out who.”

My mind is reeling, but I know this is too much to handle on my own. I have to tell Luka everything.

I reach for my phone.