Berlin (Leo & Allissa International Thrillers Book 3), Luke Richardson [any book recommendations .txt] 📗

this. He had to speak to them soon because right now they thought he was dead.

29

Borya felt the sweet tang of the vodka slip down his throat. It tasted good.

The boss wanted him to head up some of the operations. This was a big move. He was going to be in charge.

“I’ve always known you had this in you,” Olezka said, refilling their glasses. “For a long time now I’ve been thinking of my own retirement. Stepping away at least. Get a house on the coast maybe. No more of this running and chasing.” He made a gesture of running fingers with his right hand before picking up the glass. “I just needed someone to step up for me. Someone with the right attributes. Na Zdorovie!” Olezka lifted the glass to his lips and drained it.

“Now, I have business to attend to. But before I do, I must pee.”

“You know the way Dedushka Olezka,” Borya said, draining his glass too.

Olezka left the room and Borya considered what they had just discussed. He would be in charge. His years of hard work would have paid off.

Olezka’s phone pinged from the countertop. Borya looked at it. A text message had been received. ‘Semion’ flashed on the screen.

Borya was alert. Had Semion got something from Keal? Borya reached over, spun the phone around and viewed the message. Reading the three words, Borya felt the room move. The air left his lungs and he gripped the counter for support.

“Borya was there,” the text message said.

30

“Oh my gosh. Allissa. Hi! How are you?” Allissa’s sister squealed. Allissa smiled, swallowing her nerves. “You look, just... wow,” Lucy said, looking Allissa up and down. Allissa felt suddenly exposed in the clinging black dress.

“Archie, Mum, it’s Allissa,” Lucy shouted back into the house. “Well, you can’t just stand out there,” Lucy said and pulled Allissa into a hug, “come in, come in.”

The hallway was just as Allissa remembered. Dark paintings hung across white walls. In the largest, a man pulled a reluctant horse through an orchard, but the horse seemed more interested in the apples than following its master. When Allissa lived in the house, she used to think that if it were her horse, she would either let it eat the apples or take it another route. It seemed unnecessarily cruel to be pulling it past fruit it wasn’t allowed to eat. In contrast to the gloomy painting, a bright string of bunting drooped across the frame.

Lucy led them through the door Allissa had cowered behind the last time she was in the house.

“Oh, Allissa, it’s so good to see you. You really must tell us everything,” exclaimed Lucy as they waited in the kitchen for the hired butler to pour champagne. It was fair to say Lucy had put on weight since Allissa had last seen her. She now looked more like their father, which Allissa didn’t think was a compliment.

“Yes, well, I don’t know where to start,” Allissa said. “It feels like so much has happened. It was so nice to get the invite though, thank you.”

Smiling, Allissa looked around the kitchen. It had always been one of her favourite places in the house. Most of the other rooms felt far too formal, but here in the kitchen, with its thick oak counters, rustic dining table and its giant stove — which seemed to groan and tick all the time — Allissa felt comfortable. It was a place the pressures of the outside world didn’t seem to permeate. They could just be a family here. That was until the day she’d heard the secret that had forced her to run.

“I just couldn’t have you miss it,” Lucy said, taking the glass the butler offered without acknowledgement.

“Thank you,” Allissa said as she accepted hers.

“Especially because we’re celebrating two things today,” Lucy said.

“Oh, your birthday, and —”

Lucy waggled her podgy left hand in front of Allissa’s face. A diamond ring gleamed from her fourth finger.

“Oh my gosh. Wow. I didn’t even know you were… well, I just had no idea…”

“No, it was all a bit of a surprise. This morning. We were just having breakfast and he —”

“We are celebrating then,” Allissa said, raising the glass.

“Yes, yes, yes! I’m so happy you’re here!”

If Allissa thought Lucy was over-the-top pleased to see her, then meeting her stepmother for the first time since her dad’s trial was the opposite. Eveline had always been a fierce woman. A few years younger than her husband, Allissa thought Eveline must now be on the cusp of sixty. The last few years had not been kind to her. She had the pale, marble-like complexion of the Venus de Milo, just without the youthful, timeless innocence.

As Allissa followed Lucy into the orangery, Eveline watched her from across the salted rim of a Martini glass. Around the orangery — Allissa could never understand why it wasn’t called a conservatory — twenty or so guests lounged and chatted.

Meeting with Eveline again was always going to be the trickiest. Allissa had planned to be at best friendly, and at worst civil. Allissa smiled as their eyes met. Eveline returned Allissa’s smile with a look that even the room’s buoyant atmosphere couldn’t soften.

“Hi Eveline, hi,” Allissa said, smiling harder as she followed Lucy across the room.

“Mummy, it’s so great to see Allissa, isn’t it? It’s like, you know, we’re,”— she indicated their brother Archie, who was engrossed in conversation with two blonde-haired women —“all back together again. It’s almost like we’re a fa —”

“Good to see you,” Eveline said, pushing Allissa’s outstretched hand to the side and pulling her into a rigid hug. Air kisses flew like bullets. “It’s so nice of you to come.”

Once again, Allissa got the impression she was merely Eveline’s husband’s daughter.

“Let’s look at you then,” Eveline said, holding Allissa at arm’s length. “Yes, you look well. Have you been eating properly?”

“Yes, I —”

“I wouldn’t want you to be going hungry or anything. Lovely dress. Who’s it by?”

“I’m not sure. I bought