“I wish that wasn’t my life, but you deserve the truth.”
The fork and knife on the table begin rattling and it’s only then I realize my hands are shaking so bad that a bit of my sparkling water has spilled over the top of my glass, not that I liked it anyway. It’s the first time I’ve ever tried it and I figure it must be an acquired taste that people like me, people from my socio-economic class aren’t accustomed to.
“Then what?”
“Eventually enough was enough. I had enough money that I never had to work again, enough money that I could get my mom out of the country, a fake passport and completely new identity, and a little place next to the beach where she can sell lemonade and swim in the sea over three hundred days a year.”
“There’s no sea around here.”
“I guess not all Americans struggle with geography,” he says completely deadpan, taking a drink of his water. “I’m just teasing you. It’s getting a bit stuffy in here with this talk, don’t you think?”
“I think I want to know the rest.”
He stands, moving toward the kitchen window and opening it, and it’s only then I notice he looks both ways before he sits back down. Is this how he lives, in fear that he’s always being chased, tracked, watched? This is no life for me.
“I left too, obviously, but didn’t want to ever put my mother in any sort of danger. All it takes is to be recognized by the wrong Russian on holiday with their family and everything I worked for comes crashing down.”
“But if you didn’t need to work again, why did you come here? Why did you work?”
“I’m not going to take my money and build a golden cage, trapping myself alone in a nice house for the rest of my life. Plus it’s better to be out amongst the people, socializing, living. If I wanted to lock myself inside that’s basically death. I might as well just catch the next flight back to Moscow and take a bullet in the brain before I ever leave the airport parking lot.”
“So you came here to put my life in danger?”
His head moves from side to side. “Putting your life, or anyone’s life in danger, was never on my mind, not to mention I do have skills in evasiveness and dealing with dangerous people, amongst other things.”
“But…”
“But I pursued you?”
“Yes.”
“I stayed back as long as I could, Alexa, until I couldn’t anymore. But I promise you you’re safe with me. Know that.”
“How can I know that after what you just said?”
“Do you trust me?” he says, moving in closer, putting his hand on mine. “Princess.”
“Now’s not the time for that,” I say, jerking my hand back. I lean my head forward into my palm trying to make sense of this all. “I trust you, but how can you be sure that you, one man, can hold off what amounts to an army of men if they find you.”
“I can put a bullet in-between the heads of the double-headed eagle that sits on the back of the one ruble coin…with a sniper rifle from six hundred yards. And I can do it ten times out of ten. I have a special set of skills, and not some kind of Liam Neeson ‘Taken’ nonsense. This is real. No one can touch me, or you, ever.” He pauses. “But I understand your fears. One day they’ll come for me, and that day, like every day, I’ll be ready.”
“So that’s the play? You’re going to stay here and be the Russian teacher until some Russians find you? Why couldn’t you have picked another subject?”
“I didn’t pick Russian and I didn’t pick this school. I got off the bus here because it looked beyond boring, and I was right…until I saw you.”
“You already said that.”
“At the bus stop, not in the classroom.”
“You saw me…?”
“You were buying a pack of smokes. I prayed they weren’t for you, and now that I’ve been to what was your house I assume they were for your mom.”
“You…I…” I think back. He’s right. One time the corner store was out and I did have to walk all the way over the bus stop to buy mom cigarettes. “That was a long time ago.”
“It was, but it told me two three things. One, you were eighteen because you were old enough to buy cigarettes, and two, not to get back on that bus and finish out the ticket I’d originally bought..”
“That’s only two.”