Chapter 5 - The Lesson Roman Never Wanted Her to LearnFelix knocked Sadi onto the mat for the ninth time.
She hit hard enough to force the air from her lungs.
For several seconds, she stared at the ceiling.
"Again," Felix said.
Sadi lifted one hand.
"I need approximately seven seconds to remember why I voluntarily agreed to this."
"Six."
"You're hilarious."
"Five."
Sadi rolled onto her knees.
The private training facility occupied an entire underground level beneath one of Roman's commercial buildings.
No windows.
Concrete walls.
A shooting range she had refused to enter.
A gym.
A medical room.
And enough surveillance equipment to monitor a small country.
Roman stood behind the glass wall with Arthur.
He had not interfered once.
That irritated her more than if he had.
Sadi got to her feet.
Felix was enormous.
Not Roman enormous.
Roman carried his size elegantly.
Felix looked like someone had taught a refrigerator to fight.
"Again," he said.
Sadi raised her hands.
Felix stepped forward.
She remembered the lesson.
Do not fight strength with strength.
Move.
Create distance.
Find the exit.
She shifted before he could grab her.
His hand brushed her shoulder.
Sadi pivoted.
Felix turned.
Too fast.
He caught her wrist.
She reacted without thinking.
Thumb toward the gap.
Rotate.
Pull.
Her hand slipped free.
Sadi drove her palm upward.
Felix moved his head before she reached his nose.
But he smiled.
"Better."
Then he swept her legs out.
Sadi crashed down.
"You're enjoying this."
"A little."
From behind the glass, Roman almost smiled.
Sadi pointed at him.
"You're next."
Roman folded his arms.
"Whenever you're ready."
"I hate this family."
Arthur coughed suspiciously.
Sadi climbed upright again.
The training continued for two hours.
She learned that most self-defense fantasies were nonsense.
You did not become dangerous after one lesson.
You became exhausted.
You became bruised.
You discovered muscles you had never known existed.
More importantly, you learned that survival was often ugly.
Run.
Scream.
Scratch.
Break a finger.
Use a chair.
Use keys.
Use teeth.
Forget dignity.
Dignity was for people who were already safe.
At nine, Roman finally entered.
"Enough."
Felix immediately stepped away.
Sadi bent over with her hands on her knees.
"You said two hours."
"It has been two hours and forty minutes."
She checked the clock.
He was right.
Roman handed her water.
"You did well."
"Felix threw me into the floor fourteen times."
"Seventeen."
She glared at Felix.
He shrugged.
"Accuracy matters."
Sadi drank.
Roman touched the bruise forming along her forearm.
His expression darkened.
"Don't."
"What?"
"Look at Felix like you're planning his funeral."
Felix cleared his throat.
"I appreciate that, ma'am."
Roman ignored him.
"We're done."
"No."
Roman looked at her.
"I want the surveillance lesson."
"You need rest."
"I need a shower. Then surveillance."
"Sadi."
"You promised."
His jaw tightened.
Twenty minutes later, freshly showered and wearing black athletic clothes, she sat inside the security center beside Arthur.
Roman had lost.
Gracefully.
But definitely.
Arthur showed her how cameras overlapped.
How professional surveillance teams rotated personnel.
How people following you rarely stared directly at you.
"Look for repetition," he explained. "Same jacket. Same vehicle. Same face appearing where probability says it shouldn't."
Sadi studied six screens.
"What about reflections?"
Arthur nodded approvingly.
"Useful."
"Store windows?"
"Excellent."
"Phone camera?"
"Only if you're certain you haven't been noticed."
Roman stood behind them.
Sadi could feel him watching.
She ignored him.
Arthur switched footage.
A crowded street.
"Find the tail."
Sadi watched.
People crossed intersections.
A delivery truck stopped.
A woman walked a dog.
A man in a baseball cap entered a pharmacy.
Thirty seconds.
Nothing.
Then she noticed the umbrella.
Blue.
A woman carried it past the camera.
Two screens later, a different person held what appeared to be the same umbrella.
"Blue umbrella."
Arthur paused.
"Why?"
"Different people. Same object."
Arthur glanced at Roman.
"Very good."
Roman's face betrayed nothing.
But Sadi knew him.
He was proud.
She liked that more than she expected.
The next footage was harder.
Then harder again.
By noon, her brain hurt more than her body.
Roman's phone vibrated.
He looked down.
His expression changed.
Arthur noticed.
"What happened?"
Roman turned the screen toward him.
Arthur read the message.
"Impossible."
"What?" Sadi asked.
Roman hesitated.
She held out her hand.
He gave her the phone.
One sentence.
MIDNIGHT. OLD CENTRAL STATION. COME ALONE OR THE NEXT PHOTOGRAPH WILL BE TAKEN AFTER SHE STOPS BREATHING.
Sadi reread it.
"Obviously you're not going alone."
Roman took back the phone.
"Obviously I am."
"No."
"Sadi."
"That's exactly what Viktor wants."
"He wants me."
"He wants you emotional."
Roman's eyes sharpened.
Sadi stood.
"Think about it. He could have attacked me yesterday. He had someone inside the penthouse."
"No. The courier had orders only to deliver the envelope."
"You don't know that."
"I do."
"How?"
"Because you're alive."
The answer chilled her.
Roman continued.
"If Viktor wanted you dead, he would not announce himself."
"Then what does he want?"
Roman stared at the message.
"To make me remember."
"Remember what?"
Arthur answered.
"His son."
Roman's head turned.
Arthur's expression remained neutral.
But the damage was done.
Sadi looked between them.
"What son?"
Roman said nothing.
"Roman."
He walked toward the far end of the room.
For once, Sadi saw something she almost never saw in him.
Avoidance.
She followed.
"What happened to Viktor's son?"
Roman stopped.
"His name was Luka."
"Was?"
"He died."
"How?"
Roman turned.
"I killed him."
The room became silent.
Sadi's mouth went dry.
Roman did not soften the words.
Did not excuse them.
Did not hide behind euphemisms.
"I was twenty-four."
"Why?"
"Luka kidnapped my younger brother."
Sadi blinked.
"You had a brother?"
Roman's face changed.
"Yes."
She suddenly understood why nobody had mentioned him.
"What happened?"
"His name was Daniel."
Roman looked toward the dark surveillance monitors.
"He was nineteen. He wanted nothing to do with our family. He played piano. He was applying to conservatories."
Sadi's heart tightened.
"Luka took him to force my father to surrender territory."
"And you went after him."
"Yes."
"Did you save Daniel?"
Roman did not answer.
He did not need to.
Sadi closed her eyes.
"I'm sorry."
"I found Luka first."
Roman's voice was almost detached.
"I wanted information. I wanted him afraid enough to tell me where Daniel was."
"What did you do?"
"Too much."
Sadi looked at him.
"He died before he told you."
"Yes."
"And Daniel?"
"We found him twelve hours later."
Roman stared at the floor.
"He had already been dead for six."
Sadi understood.
Viktor had lost a son.
Roman had lost a brother.
And neither man had ever escaped that night.
"This isn't about territory," she whispered.
"No."
"It's revenge."
"Yes."
"Then going alone gives him exactly what he wants."
Roman looked at her.
"Sometimes there are debts that cannot be negotiated."
Sadi walked closer.
"Did killing Luka bring Daniel back?"
His face tightened.
"No."
"Will Viktor killing you bring Luka back?"
"No."
"Then stop treating death like accounting."
Roman stared at her.
She touched his chest.
"You told me I wasn't allowed to think kindness was weakness."
"I never said that."
"You implied it beautifully."
Despite everything, the corner of his mouth moved.
Sadi continued.
"Maybe Viktor expects the Roman from fifteen years ago."
"He does."
"Then don't send him that man."
Roman's eyes narrowed.
"What are you suggesting?"
"We go."
"No."
"We go together."
"Absolutely not."
"With Arthur. Felix. Surveillance. Backup."
"He specifically said alone."
"People who send death threats aren't generally known for respecting rules."
Roman almost laughed.
Almost.
Sadi took his hand.
"Don't walk into his trap because you're ashamed of who you used to be."
That struck deeper than she intended.
Roman's fingers tightened around hers.
"You don't understand what I was."
"No."
Sadi looked directly into his eyes.
"But I understand what you are."
Silence.
"And what am I?"
"My husband."
His expression softened.
"Annoyingly controlling."
It hardened again.
"Extremely dramatic."
"Sadi."
"Occasionally terrifying."
She moved closer.
"But you're also the man who kneels on a bedroom floor to put ice on my leg. You're the man who wears cufflinks he doesn't need because I bought them."
Her thumb touched the rhodium at his wrist.
"You don't get to tell me that man isn't real because another version existed first."
Roman looked down at her hand.
Then at her.
Arthur quietly turned away.
Felix found something interesting on a monitor.
Finally Roman exhaled.
"You're staying in the vehicle."
Sadi smiled.
"We'll negotiate."
Roman closed his eyes.
"I regret teaching you that word."
At 11:42 that night, three black vehicles left the underground garage.
They did not travel together.
They moved through separate routes across the sleeping city.
Sadi sat beside Roman in the center vehicle.
Neither spoke.
Old Central Station had been abandoned for seventeen years.
At 11:58, the car stopped two blocks away.
Roman opened the door.
Sadi caught his hand.
He turned.
"Come back."
Three simple words.
Roman looked at her for a long moment.
Then he leaned down and kissed her.
Not passionately.
Not desperately.
Like a promise.
"I always do."
He stepped into the rain.
Sadi watched him disappear toward the dead station.
Thirty seconds later, Arthur's voice came through her earpiece.
"Movement."
Felix straightened beside her.
"Where?"
"Roof."
Then the radio exploded with static.
Every light inside the vehicle died.
Sadi's heart stopped.
Felix reached for the door.
A violent impact struck the side of the SUV.
Glass shattered.
Metal screamed.
The vehicle tipped.
Sadi saw pavement.
Rain.
May you like
Sparks.
Then darkness.
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