У тебя проблема. К нему приходил незваный гость. (You have a problem. He had an unexpected visitor.)
An early morning text arrived on Kirill's new French number. As Kirill woke up from the low ding of his phone, he had a feeling this was not a good message. He recognized Danila's number and closed his eyes as he sat on the side of the bed.
This was it. His biggest fear in life was about to present itself full force and he was at a significant disadvantage. He couldn't believe his plan didn't work. It was set up perfectly but he made a mistake somewhere and now he would have to pay for it.
He knew his chances of success were 99% but there was always that 1% of uncertainty and now he was smack dab in the middle of it.
Having to tell Mia about all this was a non negotiable at this point but he wasn't sure what else to do past that. He couldn't come back to Moscow to finish this, not now, and their current status was too uncertain.
At the same time, they couldn't run and hide their whole lives and move from place to place and switch continents. Moreover, he knew that with the person he was dealing with, that wouldn't work anyway.
"Mia, I have to tell you something."
Kirill looked at her tanned face as they sat on the patio finishing their coffee. He always felt that she was an angel sent to him from above but now he was drowning and keeping her safe seemed a task achievable only to God himself.
She turned to him with furrowed eyebrows and her full attention.
"I'm listening."
"I have a problem. No. We have a problem. My plan didn't work." He decided that he just had to lay it all out on the table. "Someone knows...knows that I'm not dead...the one specific person who I..." he paused because he didn't want to say he was afraid of this person.
But he was. Mia intently listened to him as her insides began to shiver from the snippet of information she just received. "Who I wanted to get away from." He finally said not looking away from her face. She waited for more but then asked,
"Is this the not everything that I don't know about you?"
She didn't forget what he said to her in their apartment when he came back from the dead. Something haunted him and she patiently waited to find out what it was and she knew it was about to be revealed to her.
Kirill closed his eyes and slightly nodded. He sighed heavily and launched into the story.
"When I was 22, 23...I worked with a...a crime boss" he looked for the correct words in English. "who wanted to put pressure on a very dangerous and powerful man. I was assigned to kidnap that man's daughter and..." he paused not wanting to give her all the details even though he had to.
"And what?" Mia asked quietly.
"I was to kidnap and...rape her and torture her...and send evidence to the man...but I...I couldn't do it. She was 16 and she seemed like a really good girl." Kirill spoke slowly.
"You didn't rape and torture her because she looked like a nice person?" Mia asked completely terrified of the information she was hearing.
"No...no" Kirill responded right away furrowing his eyebrows and shaking his head. "I've never raped a woman, Mia, we've had this conversation. I would rather pull someone's intestines out through their mouth than do that..." he trailed off as he noticed her eyes widen at his last words. "I kept her captive and I was the only one who had access to her." He gulped and closed his eyes again. "But she died. And she was his light and love."
"How did she die?" Mia asked forcefully as she was becoming nauseous.
Kirill shook his head vigorously,
"I never touched her. I couldn't do any of that. This was the only time in my life when I was in this kind of situation. This was a test and I obviously didn't pass." He fell silent as he took a few breaths and looked at the ground. "She committed suicide. Turns out teenage girls can be pretty resourceful. But she died under my supervision. There's more to it but it was a complete fuck up." He squeezed his eyes from the discomfort of telling her all this.
Mia sat in front of him not moving and just silently looking at him. She tried to calm her breath but what she was hearing was completely breaking her apart.
"Mia? The man who is her father? He is very high up in the government...very high up. He is very powerful and he has a lot of money and connections and possibilities. He fully blames me and I am the only one who he hasn't killed out of everyone who was involved. And there is a reason for that." Kirill continued looking at her as he forced himself to reveal it all to her. "He doesn't want me to die. He wants to take from me what I took from him and watch me suffer." He looked at her hoping she would understand without him having to say the words.
"And what's that, Kirill?" She forced him.
"You. That's why I had to die in such a...visible way...with all the witnesses. Because if I'm dead, you don't present any value to him. But if I'm alive...he will take you, to torture me..."
"Why didn't he do it before? We didn't just meet." Mia asked him trying to make sense of the situation.
"Because he was most likely waiting for the perfect time...until he was certain you were the one...or if we had kids...I have a hunch as to how he found out that I'm not dead and now he is at a complete advantage. He knows I'm alive and everything that I had...that I was...no longer applies. He will take you knowing that I have no resources at my fingertips."
Mia felt like she was falling through the air without any net to catch her and no way to stop herself. This knowledge scared her to the bottom of her soul and it also came completely out of left field and she was not ready for it. Kirill continued,
"There is also irony in all of this because in part, I was able to rise the way I did because he cleared the path for me. When he took out the man I worked for, I was able to consolidate my power and take control. I completely fucked up the assignment and I knew that my days were numbered. But then my boss was killed and he didn't get a chance to kill me. But out of everyone involved, I was the only one left alive...it's not just luck." Kirill stopped talking and looked out onto the sea on the horizon.
"Who helped you set all this up?" Mia asked him desperate for some answers.
"The priest helped me...the one who married us...him and his church men, whatever they are called. They were the guests who were responsible for checking my pulse and the paramedics who took me away."
"Father Nikolai?!" Mia asked incredulously. She was blown away by the theatrics. She remembered how odd the priest was in church and now the missing pieces of the puzzle were falling into place.
"Who were the men that saved me from Artyom?" She asked Kirill quickly.
"My men. Danila arranged it though." Kirill answered honestly as he ransacked his brain for a solution.
"So the priest and his church guys know...Danila knows...How well do you know Danila?" She spoke with urgency as if expecting someone to bust through the door. Kirill shook his head and answered,
"No. Danila would never reveal this information to anyone. The priest...wouldn't either. Unless someone put a hot iron on his chest but why would anyone ever suspect him in anything? No." Kirill shook his head again and tried to say something but Mia interjected,
"Are you sure? Are you 100% sure of Danila? Because now, I'm not so sure..." Kirill looked up at her with curiosity as she gulped. "In the elevator, in the hotel. He...I don't know...he said he would risk it all..." Mia wasn't sure how to explain exactly what happened because nothing really happened but also, something did.
"Risk what?" Kirill asked with metal in his voice.
Mia explained the elevator incident and stood up from her chair, pacing on the stone patio with her white robe half unraveled revealing her ivory lingerie and a slight wind rustling her hair.
Her tanned skin a stark contrast to her clothing, Kirill wondered how he would ever be able to protect her now that his whole plan folded like a house of cards.
"I don't believe Danila would be the one to do it. He has nothing to gain from it and I've known him too long. He's like a brother." Kirill responded to her.
"Like Dmitry was?" Mia stopped pacing and looked down at him sitting in his chair, arms crossed as he looked up at her. He realized she had a point but he was sure of Danila.
"No. It's different. It's just...Danila is not like Dima, he is better, he's a good kid-"
"Yeah, he seems to be on the real straight and narrow, what does he do for a living again?" Mia interrupted him with sarcasm in her voice. "Actually! You never even told me. What does he do?"
"What I do...What I did." He corrected himself.
Mia raised one eyebrow at him. "Okay, so he is a drug dealer...in Russia...yeah...he sounds like a real stand up guy."
"Not a drug dealer, Mia, don't call us that!" He shook his head and responded annoyed.
"Okay. What should I call you guys then?" She dropped her arms by her side and asked genuinely knowing he had no answer.
"I have so many questions." Mia continued like a sleuth.
"Why were you not alarmed the first few times we went to Russia if you knew this guy was...was...after you or me?...Why did we get married? We could have not gotten married and he wouldn't have known." She was throwing questions out hoping to figure out that this was all wrong.
"He was sick for a long time. When we went to Russia a year ago, he was going through cancer treatments and it looked like he wouldn't make it but...he got better. And I married you because I love you. He was just waiting to figure out who was my one and only. Even if we didn't get married, he would have figured out you are the target when we stayed together."
"Why can't you just go and kill him? What's so special about him?" Mia was surprised how easily she asked that question.
"I can...but I would go away for life. There is no way to pay your way out of this one. It's one thing when authorities turn a blind eye or participate in drug sales and what not, but it's a whole different story when a government minister gets killed. His death will raise many questions and will be heavily investigated. He's only vulnerable when he travels outside Russia and ex Soviet Republics or if he gets caught in a terrorist attack."
"How, how would he know you're alive?" Mia asked another question.
"I think Artyom told him." Kirill finally responded to the question as Mia continued piecing it all together.
"And Artyom knows about you and this guy for sure?"
"Yes. Many people do. What happened is not a secret." He said while nodding his head.
Shock and feelings of entrapment radiated through Mia and she felt lost and disturbed.
"Damn, Kirill..." she looked at him with defeat. "Why are there so many surprises..."
He looked up at her with sadness and torment in his eyes. He loved her with all the fibres of his being and in this moment he realized he did not deserve her. He was the source of her danger and problems which she never even imagined could exist until she linked her life with him.
He felt like he had trapped her, just like that 16 year old girl.
"Is this guy an oligarch, a minister, what?" Mia asked Kirill hoping to get some more details. "Can we just move to Argentina or Iceland or something?"
"He is all those things...and more. His name is Oleg and no. There is no place on this planet where we can go where he can't find us."
Mia stared back at Kirill as the reality of their and mostly her new situation washed over.
"So, now what? We just wait for him to ruin our lives?" She asked Kirill.
Kirill was emotionally destroyed from the knowledge that his well executed plan didn't work and was suffering from not knowing how it happened.
He had no answers for her in the moment as he hadn't had a chance to work it all out in his head. He kept silent after her somber question.
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