Saints and Sinners

Thirty-nine:

Thirty-nine:

The apartment had been torn apart. Alina hadn't been able to think of anything to do except to angrily yell at the stad watch. "Don't touch that!" she said. "What are you doing that----" and in the end everything happened in a complete and total blur. After a while, there was nothing and Alina didn't know what to do. After the stad watch left, there was another knocking on the door.

"Go away!" Alina shouted.

"Lina, open up. It's me. Mal." Alina opened the door, and Mal was standing there. He wrapped his arms around her and Alina buried her face in his shoulder.

"Mal!" she exclaimed. "I didn't know what happened. The stad watch was here, they came for Aleksander's things. They're trying to say that Aleksander was blackmailing The Apparat into doing terrible things and---"

Mal pulled her away so that he could look at her. "Hey, it's okay. I know all about it. But there's something that you've got to know that Aleksander probably won't want to tell you. The Apparat----"

"He told me," Alina said, "we went to the church, and Aleksander told me that The Apparat was his father. And that he'd been using Aleksander for years to make him do terrible things."

Mal's eyes widened. "He actually told you?"

Alina nodded.

"Shit." Mal scratched his chin. "Well, nothing says true love like revealing your family dysfunction to a complete and total stranger. Are you okay?"

Alina shook her head. "I don't know what to do, Mal. If I help him, I ruin any future that I have but I can't..."

Mal reached out and took her hand. "No. You can't leave him. You're his soulmate. That's what I'm here for, though. I'm here to help you. Aleskander might be a fixer for the church, but I'm the fixer for Aleksander."

Alina frowned. "Please tell me you're joking."

He shrugged. "It's a family business, Lina. Besides, you're the soulmate of the most dangerous man in Ravka. You've got to be prepared for dangerous things to come. And well...there are dangerous things to come. But you said the stad watch was here?"

Alina nodded. "They had a search warrant. I don't understand how they had a search warrant so quickly?"

Mal smirked. "I do. It wasn't real."

"What are you talking about?" Alina asked. "Why would someone fake a search warrant?"

Mal took out his cell phone and shoved a picture in front of her. "Was that the man that had the search warrant?"

Alina nodded.

"That's Pekka Rollins. He was found dead twenty-four hours ago. Whoever you saw was an impersonator," Mal said.

Alina blinked. "What are you---how----are you sure?"

Mal nodded. "This next picture is a little gruesome. Hope you haven't eaten anything this morning. You might end up losing your lunch." He swiped to the next picture, and Alina covered her mouth in horror. The picture was the same man that had just searched her apartment moments before, shot dead in an alleyway. There was blood coming from his head and his skin was slightly discolored, as if he had been dead for at least a few days.

Alina paled, and she felt bile rise in her throat that she struggled to keep down. "But that can't be real. It can't be. I just saw---"

"You saw someone," Mal told her, "you didn't see him."

"How do you know?" Alina asked.

"Because Aleksander found his body. That was when he called me. And that was when we hatched a plan to fix everything."

Alina stared at him. "A plan to fix everything?"

Mal nodded.

"What do you mean a plan to fix everything?" Alina shrieked. "Has Aleksander been arrested, or hasn't he?"

Mal ran hand over his head. "It's a mind fuck, that's what it is. Grab your things. You and I are going to have to be doing some unpleasant things and its going to involve a lot of running. Get good shoes."

"Running?" Alina said. "Mal, don't be cryptic. I've been worried about him since we went to that church and now this. Just tell me if he's okay, please."

"Shoes, Alina." He started walking up the stairs to where her and Aleksander's rooms were. "You two are fucking now, yeah? So you're in his room?"

Alina laughed. "It's our room, you jackass. Yes."

Mal found the room, went into the closet and started rummaging through and shoving things into her backpack.

"You're being strangely calm for someone who has a picture of a dead man on his phone," said Alina.

Mal tossed her the backpack.

She caught it. "You won't tell me where we're going?"

Mal shook his head. "All you need to know is that---"

Alina's phone started ringing then. Nina's name flashed across the screen. She answered. "Nina, is everything okay?"

"Alina, I didn't know who else to call. I've been trying to call Aleksander, but he's not answering."

"Aleksander's..." she hesitated, glancing at Mal, not knowing what to say.

Mal gave her a thumbs up, as if to say that it was alright to tell her what happened. "Aleks has been arrested. They're trying to say that he's blackmailing The Apparat," Alina explained.

Nina paused. "Are you sure that it's Aleksander?"

"That's what the stad watch says, but I----"

"You need to come," said Nina, "you need to come to see me. Don't do anything else. There's something that you've got to see, but you won't understand it until you see it. Come to my safehouse. Please."

Alina glanced at Mal, and she placed the phone to her chest. "Nina says that we need to go see her. There's something wrong."

"Obviously," said Mal, "did she not see the news?"

"Yes, now come on, we've got to go."