Alexei And Grace

23 | Burden of Lies

"SO ARE YOU GOING TO explain the reason behind all of this?" Grace asked from the passenger seat beside me.

          We were almost at my family home, and she'd been unusually quiet the whole drive. It was nice to have some time to think uninterrupted by the flux of emotions she usually forced me to feel, but I could see she'd been biting her nails which meant she was probably nervous.

          "Behind all of what?" I asked casually. Playing dumb seemed the best bet with Grace at the moment. The last thing I wanted was to terrify her any more than my father would tonight.

          She rolled her eyes at me. "You know what."

          Damn it.

          "You're going to have to be specific."

          There was a stretch of silence in which she stared down at her hands. "Forget it," she sighed.

          Of course I couldn't fucking forget it now. This woman was driving me insane—literally insane. I never drove other people anywhere; I only ever drove myself. Now here she was only a few inches away from me in my car. Every time she moved even a tiny amount it registered with me. It was really starting to piss me off just how much I couldn't ignore her. I was constantly analysing her, trying to pick up what she was thinking or feeling.

          "We're almost there," I said flatly. "Any questions you have you'd better ask them now."

          That caught her attention. She glanced out of the window quickly and I felt a little bad that I'd made her panic. Still, she'd have to get used to it if she was going to survive tonight. It was going to be a long, long dinner.

          "Your dad, um—"

          "Viktor," I filled in for her.

          "Right," she nodded, "Viktor randomly turned up to the restaurant where dad and I were eating at precisely the time we were leaving. Why?"

          The real answer to this question was complicated, but then so were most things in my life. I wasn't sure of my father's true intentions with Grace. I knew he wasn't going to kill her—he couldn't with me around. As for hurting her, well he wouldn't get very far with that either. My best guess—and I hated guessing—was that he was hoping to scare her. Tell her the truth, or at least more than I'd revealed, and watch as she ran to the police. She'd never get that far, of course.

          I settled for a veiled version of the truth, as I so often had to with Grace. I hated keeping things from her, but the duty I carried weighed heavier on my shoulders than the burden of my lies. 

          "He doesn't trust you," I explained. "My father is a very good judge of character. I suspect he believes that inviting you to our house will allow him to assess how...reliable you are."

          Grace's big blue eyes widened slightly. "He thinks I'd tell your secret?"

         It was so Grace to be offended by that, rather than worried about the consequences. It concerned me that her priorities were in all the wrong places, that she called it my secret as if what I did was of no importance. As if it didn't involve more crimes than I could count on both hands.

         "Yes," I nodded.

         "I would never..."

         "I know." Again, I wasn't certain how true my reply was. I trusted Grace to an extent, but my trust was hard-earned and she hadn't even heard the half of what I was involved in. If—when—she finally found out, I didn't know how she'd react. She was good, pure, not built for a life like this. She saved people, she didn't kill them. So maybe my father was right to do this. At least then we'd know. And if she failed to keep quiet...