“They told me not to kill him. You told me not to kill him.”
There was visual feedback in the stream, thanks, no doubt, to a shitty hotspot signal. “操。” [Fuck.] My tongue ticked against the roof of my mouth, placing another cigarette between my teeth as my legs draped across the desk in front of the laptop.
I watched the Russian walk away, fingers hesitating just above the keyboard. Lighting the cigarette and taking a long drag, I hit the ‘j’ key.
A cloud of smoke swirled around the screen as I watched the figure of Villanelle move in reverse before pausing on a clear frame of her face.
“Beautiful,” I said, reaching out to trace the tip of a gilded finger along the screen before pressing the ‘k.’ Playing it again, I was frustrated all over again when the feedback came. At the exact moment Konstantin’s camera was on her face, too.
At the exact moment I was most excited to see... when the puzzle pieces started to fall together across her face.
Those were the parts I liked best.
I chewed on the tip of my ring for a moment, thinking. Perhaps this was my excuse to finally see it in person. Heels slipping off the desk, I closed my laptop and headed for the door. Within five minutes, I was walking out to the car, only meeting the eye line of the driver long enough to say:
“We will drive around until we find her.” Holding out her picture to him, I shrugged, “She’ll be walking on the street within a few blocks from here.”
I didn’t miss the look that crossed his face. The one that said this would be impossible in a city like this.
“And if you don’t find her within twenty minutes, I’ll slice your eyelids off of your face. Maybe then you’ll learn to be observant, huh.”
Slamming the door closed myself just as my legs had slid inside, I tapped impatiently on the divider. “Let’s go.”
Fifteen minutes later, yes, I was counting, I felt the car start to slow… rolling down the window, I smiled when I saw her.
“Villanelle,” I said, making sure to speak as clearly in English as I could. “I think you would be safer with me than here on the street… With my friends looking for you,” my brows rose slightly the moment our eyes met.
