Blood Trust - Eric van Lustbader [130]
“You said you’d never see her again.”
“No, honey, she said that.” He made a vague gesture. “She says she’s involved in this situation with Xhafa.”
Alli’s eyes rose to engage his. “Do you believe her?”
“I wasn’t sure—until I saw the scars on Edon’s back.”
“Yeah, they’re just like the ones on Annika’s back.” Alli licked her lips. “She’s after Arian Xhafa, isn’t she?”
He nodded. “I wouldn’t bet against it.”
“But you weren’t thinking about her when I sat down here.”
Jack sighed. “Alli, Naomi Wilde is missing. I spoke to a chief detective who thinks she’s been murdered.”
Alli’s gaze dropped to her hands, which fidgeted in her lap. “I liked Naomi,” she said after a time.
“Me, too.”
“D’you really think she’s dead?”
“No way to say at this point.”
She picked at her nails, which were already bitten short. “What’s gonna happen to Thatë?”
Jack shrugged. “That will be largely up to him.”
“You don’t have a plan for him? You have a plan for everyone.”
“I think you’re giving me too much credit.”
“Do you have a plan for Annika?”
He remained silent for some time. “It’s not just me who has a connection with her.”
When she gave him a startled look, he said, “What, did you think I wouldn’t notice?”
Alli was back to staring at her hands.
“Alli, talk to me.”
She heaved a sigh and shook her head as if to clear it. “Last year, when we were in the Ukraine, it was almost like…” Her words grew fainter and fainter until they faded out altogether.
Jack waited a moment, then leaned forward. “Like what?”
Tears grew in Alli’s eyes, glittering and fragile-seeming. “There were moments—at that awful restaurant, at the apartment—when we were like … like a family.” She almost winced when she said the last word. “Is that a horrible thing to say?”
He took her slim hands in his. “Why would it be horrible?”
She gave a tiny sound that was as much a sob as a bitter laugh. “Because, Jack. Because of so many things.” Her voice was a whisper. “Because she lied to both of us, because she murdered an American senator, because…” Her nails dug into his palms. “… oh, Christ, don’t make me go on.”
“Alli, look at me, we’re all of us angels and demons. We choose our paths, but there are forces, vast and hidden, that compel us into situations, sometimes against our will—”
“Are you excusing what she did?” It was less accusation than plea.
“I’m saying that when it comes to Annika the truth is always hidden, and when it does come to light—if it ever does—it’s far more complex, and conflicted, than we can imagine.”
She nodded. “That I can understand.”
He smiled. “I know.”
She withdrew her hands from his. He knew from experience that there was only a certain amount of physical contact she could tolerate.
“Where are we meeting her?” she asked.
“In Vlorë.”
Alli risked a glance over her shoulder. “There’s something I want to ask you. It’s about Edon. Her sister, Liridona, is in Vlorë. Edon doesn’t know what’s happened to her, but she’s deathly afraid that Xhafa’s people will get ahold of her; maybe they already have.”
“Alli, much as I feel for Edon and her sister, we can’t spare the time to—”
“You can’t,” Alli said. “But I can.”
* * *
THERE WAS a police boat waiting to take Heroe to Roosevelt Island when she pulled up at the dock in Georgetown. During the short trip over, she thought about Naomi Wilde and her sister Rachel. She herself had three brothers, scattered all over the world. One was a trauma surgeon in Oregon, another a lawyer at The Hague, the third an intel officer in Afghanistan. She had always wanted a sister, someone to help counter the testosterone barrage. She wondered how Rachel would take the loss of her sister. Coming after the betrayal of her husband it wouldn’t be good—by the looks of her she was already unraveling. She made a mental note to keep an eye on her in the coming weeks.
The patrol boat nosed into the island and Heroe hopped off. She turned on the GPS function of her phone.
“Give me a half hour,” she said, “before you come looking for me.”
The officer adjusted the boat’s GPS to