The Silver Thread (49 page)

“Hold on a moment, Merri. I’m almost outside,” Talvi called into the receiver of his phone as he slipped through the crowded bar and beyond the front door to where it was quieter. Once he was out in the cool, fresh air, he reached for his back pocket and pulled a cigarette out his case, then casually lit it with his cheeky lighter. “What the devil is it now? Have you suddenly forgotten that I don’t work for you anymore?” The response that followed was so loud and unintelligible, he had to hold the phone away from his head. He took a long drag, rolled his eyes, and smirked as he brought the phone back to his ear again.

“I’m sorry, Merri, I couldn’t understand a damned word you said. It’s five in the morning there in London. Shouldn’t you be asleep, instead of interrupting my wife’s birthday party with your feminine hysterics?”

“You’re
vile
!” was all he could make out of the screaming.

“Oh, I know I’m vile, along with all the other things you’ve called me over the years,” he chirped. “Although, if you really telephoned just to whisper sweet nothings in my ear, I know you can do better than this. Remember our assignment in Budapest? My gods, I’ll never forget the wicked things that came out of your mouth, not to mention what came in it.” He snickered shamelessly and took another drag, holding the phone at a safe distance as he braced himself for the impending onslaught of insults.

“I did NOT say
you’re vile
, you bloody bastard! I said
your file
!
File
, with an F, as in, you are a
feckless, fucking FOOL!
” Merriweather yelled from the other end.

“What file are you talking about, Merri? I gave you all the papers I was working on when I left. Have you misplaced them already?” he asked, making a concerted effort not to start laughing again.

“Your personal file!” Merriweather replied in a frantic tone. “I think Stephan stole it!”

“Stephan?”

“My new assistant, whom you met right before you left the embassy!” she reminded him. “Talvi, he’s a doppelgänger! He disguised himself as
me
, and walked right up to our security guards last night and asked them to let him into my office! Don’t you remember, when you were leaving the embassy, he insisted on shaking your hand! And the very first thing I taught him after that was how to deactivate your file. I just discovered that there was a charge made in my name for a plane ticket to Portland, and I think you and Annika are in danger! You both need to get out of town
immed
iately
!”

Whatever smirk had been on Talvi’s lips was now long gone.

“Cheers for the warning,” he said and hung up. He threw his cigarette on the sidewalk, not bothering to stamp it out before going back into the bar. He pushed his way through the sea of people around him until he saw his friends. He did a quick head count, but the only redhead present was Chivanni. There was no sign of his wife.

“Chivanni, come here a moment, would you?” Talvi asked him. The fairy smoothed his long bangs aside and hopped over, as Talvi leaned down to ask discreetly, “Where’s Annika? In the loo, I hope?”

“Are you that intoxicated already?” he replied with a grin. “Have you forgotten what you did only a moment ago?”

“What do you mean?” Talvi asked. “All I did was step out to take a phone call. Where did Annika go?”

“You took her into the kitchen,” the boy replied with a shrug. “You said you’d be right back, but I assumed you would have returned with our guest of honor.”

Talvi could feel his stomach begin to turn, and his throat begin to close up, but he forced out a few more words.

“Did I do anything else? Tell me exactly what I did, even if I so much as sneezed.”

The boy wrinkled his little freckled nose, and shrugged again.

“You gave her another one of those little fairy-sized drinks, and then you took her that way,” he said, pointing to the door to the kitchen. Talvi took him by his thin arm and guided him through the door.

“Dude, I already told you once—you can’t be back here!” the cook said, but Talvi shot him a dark glare and picked up a fillet knife lying on a nearby counter, shutting him up. His desperate eyes darted past the sinks and stoves; then his nose picked up a familiar scent amidst the perfume of burnt cheese and fryer grease. He followed it straight through the main kitchen aisle, pulling Chivanni along with his free hand, until they had walked outside. It wasn’t until the door closed behind them that Talvi’s heart started to pound in his chest, sending such rivers of rage and adrenaline into his veins that his entire body shook.

“Talvi, what’s wrong?” Chivanni asked as he caught a glimpse of the furious aura surrounding his friend. “You look like you’re ready to kill someone!”

“That’s because I am,” he snarled through his clenched jaw, tightening his grip on the knife in his left hand. “Someone disguised as me has taken Annika, and when I find him, he will be begging the gods to have mercy on his soul, for I will have none. Apparently he is unfamiliar with the phrase; You never mess with a Marinossian.”

to be continued…

Annika’s misadventures will continue in 

The Scarlet Tanager ~ available for pre-order at select re
tailers
.

Book 3 of The Annika Brisby Series

When Annika opened her eyes, she could barely make out Talvi’s profile in the driver’s seat of her car. Her vision was about as blurry as a watercolor painting left in the rain, leaving her unable to see much of anything except flashes of headlights passing by. Careful not to move a muscle, she remained slumped against the door until she was sure that the sedative he’d slipped her was indeed wearing off. While they sped down the highway, she considered her escape options. Even in her stupor, she knew her choices were beyond limited. The only one she could think of was insane, and it might get her killed in the process, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Her right hand crept along the side panel of the door until it felt the handle. She gripped and pulled it as hard as she could, launching herself towards her freedom. She remembered being briefly airborne in the dark summer night before everything went black.

“You weren’t supposed to wake up, you stupid bitch,” snarled a familiar voice, but the accent was all wrong. Annika opened her eyes and screamed at the man groping at her. She tried to crawl backwards and away from Talvi, but he held her wrists down beside her ears, laughing with a disgusting air of malice.

“If you wanted to lay on your back so bad, you could’ve just told me to pull over…but I guess you like playing hard to get,” he said, unzipping his jeans. Annika growled in defiance and spit in his face, and he responded by hitting the side of her face so hard that she wondered if he’d knocked out some of her teeth.

“That’s no way to treat your husband,” he laughed, pushing up her poufy, sparkly rainbow skirt. She struggled against him, trying to kick him, but her legs felt heavy and weak. “You sure don’t behave like a good girl. Lucky for you that I’m not a good guy.”

She screamed again, and when he shoved his hand against her mouth she bit down hard, prepared for his fist when it struck her again. Her head throbbed but she somehow found the courage to taunt him to hit her again. The second his hand left her wrist, she punched him in the throat with her renewed strength. He reeled backwards, gasping as he clutched his neck. Then he lunged towards her, and Annika sank her knee into his crotch so forcefully that he fell onto his side, doubled over in pain. She began to crawl up the embankment, grasping in desperation onto the tall, wet ferns and stumbled over the thick, moss-covered logs until she saw her car a few yards ahead. She made a wobbly run for the driver’s side, oblivious to the traffic flying past her as her rubbery legs carried her to safety. She got in and locked the door, but when she reached over to close the passenger’s side, she screamed in terror. Talvi was already standing there, glaring at her with the nastiest expression she’d ever seen on his face. He grabbed her by the underarms and dragged her through the car and then shoved her down to the gravel shoulder, hitting her again before pulling out a flask from his pocket. He forced her jaws apart and poured the bitter alcoholic contents into her mouth. She tried to spit it out, but amidst the coughing and choking, her numb and sore jaws were no match for his painfully sober grip.

Red and blue lights began to flicker all around her, and when the Portland Police squad car pulled up and shined a spotlight through the rear window, she breathed a sigh of relief. Talvi hid the flask under the floor mat and rolled up his shirtsleeves, unconcerned as he waited for the officer to step out of his car. For Annika, the seconds seemed to drag by. Her arms felt like lead weights hanging off her sides, and her eyelids were betraying her, thanks to whatever had been mixed in that flask. Time began to slow down like it had earlier that night, making everything appear as blurry as another ruined watercolor.

“Everything alright here?” the officer asked, stepping closer to take a look at Annika. Her mouth opened to speak, but her frantic pleas for help sounded like incoherent drunken babble.

“I think I’ve gotten the situation under control as much as I can,” said Talvi, laughing softly. “My wife drank too much on an empty stomach, and when I pulled over to let her throw up, she fell down the ditch. She got a few scratches, but she’ll be okay.”

The officer shined his flashlight on Annika and furrowed his brow in confusion. He didn’t see any scratches at all, although there was some mud and grass stains on her disheveled clothes and her lip was bleeding.

“You alright, miss?” he asked. Annika’s voice failed her completely this time, and she beckoned with her eyes for him to rescue her from this grey-eyed monster that had the nerve to disguise himself as her husband. Troubled by her expression, the policeman turned to Talvi.

“I’ll need to see your license and registration,” he said. “Both yours and hers. It’s standard procedure.”

“We’re actually on our way to the airport,” said Talvi. “We have an international flight.”

“I doubt they’ll let your wife on the plane if she’s so drunk she can’t even talk,” said the officer with a skeptical look. “But the sooner I clear you, the sooner you’re free to find out.”

Talvi glanced in the backseat at his brown backpack.

“My ID’s in the back seat. Is it alright for me to get it?”

The officer shook his head.

“I’ll get it. You stay right where you are.”

The officer crawled into the car and reached for the bag, but when he reappeared, his eyes widened in disbelief. Talvi was almost a foot shorter, and his wild black hair had morphed to a neatly clipped ash blonde cut that was longer on the top and buzzed close at the sides. His eyes, however, were still the same shade of grey.

“Whoa, what the fuck just happened?” asked the policeman as his fingers grazed the handle of his gun. His unease was apparent as he eyed the smaller man in baggy clothes. “You’re…you’re not the same guy I was just talking to a second ago!”

“Sure I am,” said the young man in a husky, casual voice. “You’ve probably had a long night, haven’t you?”

“I just started my shift,” the officer replied while cautiously taking the ID from the grey-eyed man. The photo on the card matched the person standing in front of him, but he was still unsure about exactly who he was dealing with. “Do me a favor and come with me, Stephan. I want you to sit in the back of the squad car while I run this.”

“What about my wife?”

“I don’t think she’s going anywhere,” said the officer, looking at Annika, who was passed out on the ground next to the passenger door of her car. The two men walked to the police car, where the officer let the man previously thought to be Talvi into the back seat. After running a background check on him and Annika and responding to a few calls from his dispatcher, he held the door open and handed back the driver’s licenses.

“Well Stephan, your record’s as clean as a whistle, but it looks like your wife has a recent history of public indecency around motor vehicles…” he said hesitantly. “I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but it’s public record, so…”

“What did she do this time?” Stephan asked in a bored tone, which caught the officer off guard.

“She was arrested a few months ago with another guy for lewd and lascivious behavior. A Mr. Marinossian.”

“Oh I know all about Talvi,” said Stephan with an indifferent shrug as he stepped out of the squad car. “My wife and I have an open marriage.”

“No shit?” said the officer, dumbfounded again. “How’s that working out for you?”

“It would be working out better for me if she wasn’t shitfaced and lying on the ground right now,” said Stephen with a forced smile, sliding his ID into his wallet. “I was hoping to have a little quality time together before being stuck on a plane for the next twenty-four hours, but
c’est la vie
. It’s so embarrassing when she gets like this, but you probably see it all the time. When will women learn that they can’t drink like a man unless they’re built like one?”

“Aw, well, today’s her birthday, so go easy on her,” said the officer, trying not to snicker at the sight of the redhead passed out in the gravel. “I’ve seen plenty of college gals in worse shape than her, but she’ll probably still have one hell of a hangover during the flight. Where’re you headed, anyway? Twenty-four hours seems like a long time to be stuck on a plane.”

“We’re going to Prague. There’s a lot of connecting flights.”

“Oh, that’ll be nice. Real romantic looking, from the pictures I’ve seen. You’ll have tons of quality time once you get there,” the officer said, smiling good naturedly. “Hopefully I didn’t keep you kids too long and they’ll let her on the plane. I can’t imagine security taking very long at this time of night. Do you want a hand getting her back into your car? It’s the least I can do.”

“If you don’t mind, that would be great,” Stephan replied as he extended his hand towards the officer. “What’s your name, by the way?”

“Jenkins,” the officer said as he shook Stephan’s hand. “Aaron Jenkins.”

“Well, Aaron Jenkins,” Stephan grinned as he gripped the officer’s hand a little tighter and shook it a little longer than necessary, “I don’t think you have any idea how lucky I am to have met you.”