Ilya by Barbara Elsborg

Author:Barbara Elsborg [Elsborg, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-10-17T00:00:00+00:00

19

Ilya woke with a start, smiled when he remembered all they’d got up to last night, then cringed when he remembered what Julien had told him. Hugging would help make things better. Then registered Julien wasn’t beside him and that the bed was cold. Shit. Ilya padded naked to the window and saw the car had gone. Not a surprise but definitely a disappointment. He showered, dressed and went into the main room. Julien’s hoodie lay on the couch and he pulled it over his head. It was much too big but it smelled of him. When he spotted Julien’s phone on the worksurface, his heart sank. Had he forgotten it, or left it so that he couldn’t be called?

For a few distressing minutes, he wondered if Julien might not come back, that he’d bought him that wire and the tools so he had something to keep him occupied. How could he know whether Julien was all right? Ilya could feel his anxiety gathering speed and made himself take some deep breaths.

He didn’t want breakfast but when he went to make himself a coffee, there was a note on the machine saying eat something. Ilya smiled and looked for a biscuit, where he found another note saying not a biscuit. That made him laugh. So he had toast with the Golden Shred marmalade Julien had bought for him.

Please let him come back in one piece. Chechens had a reputation for being very tough, quick to defend their community against attack by whatever means necessary. They often set fire to bodies to stop them being identified. He remembered his father telling him that because of their fearsome reputation, they didn’t even have to be that violent, because no one dared mess with them knowing what they were prepared to do.

But Lors held Julien responsible for the death of his son. No way would Julien ever be out of danger even though he’d saved Borsha.

Ilya sat at the table, his phone at his side, just in case Julien called him from one of his other phones, and set to work making a little dog like the one he’d played with on the beach. Then he constructed an otter, followed by a series of little birds. He didn’t eat lunch. Anxiety churned his stomach, though working helped him stay calm.

Julien wasn’t back when the light started to fail and Ilya settled on the couch with his iPad. There was a router on the bookcase and he’d pulled out the little tab on the side that told him the network name and the password so he could get online.

When he managed to connect to the internet, he felt guilty, but he’d be careful. He didn’t know Julien’s surname but googling Julien, Sébastien, brothers, Abrek, violent deaths, Paris and the year, brought up the story of what had happened. Julien’s surname was Descoteaux. He didn’t discover anything Julien hadn’t already told him. Googling Mikhail Morozov and Bryant didn’t bring up anything he hadn’t seen before

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