Page 267 of Sexting His Assistant

I don’t turn around.

Meredith watches my face, and for the first time, I see something like regret in her expression. It is small, but it is there, and somehow that makes me angrier.

“You were the leak,” I say.

Meredith says, “Give him the phone.”

My hand tightens. The gun presses harder into my spine.

The man says, “Now.”

I lower my phone slowly and the man swiftly crushes the phone under his feet. I flinch at the sound.

Meredith says, “Good.”

I stare at her. “How long?”

She does not answer.

I ask, “How long have you been feeding them information?”

Meredith says, “Walk down.”

“No,” I say.

The gun digs in again.

The man says, “Walk or you die right here.”

29

LUKA

I’m at the office when I decide I’m done waiting.

I have been standing behind my desk for the last twenty minutes while men bring me scraps instead of answers. Hospital exit camera. Service corridor. Delivery bay. Cab moving two buildings east. Plate half-covered by dirt. Driver paid in cash. Nina disappearing into a part of the city she had no reason to enter.

Pavel stands in front of me with a tablet in his hand, too still, too quiet, his neat face giving nothing away.

I pick up my phone again.

Call.

No answer.

Again.

No answer.

Again.

Straight to ringing until it dies.

I lower the phone slowly.

Pavel says, “We are narrowing the taxi route.”

I look at him. “You said that fourteen minutes ago.”