A fleeting glance at the guards told me what I needed, they weren't going to talk to them there. I looked at them too, their upright figure, their black suits like a deep stain against the white of the walls. They were threatening, not to mention that being prisoners here anything was threatening. But I was not going to be alone with these people, I did not know what they wanted but I was not going to trust them after they had kidn*pped me.
"Ivan, can you stay while I talk to them?"The rest of you can retire"
The guards did not refuse, but they did not move either.
I turned.
"And good?"
It was Ivan who spoke and seemed nervous.
"Ma'am, did Dominick approve?"
The question internalized me, only highlighting how useless my power was, how weak my authority was. I could see the Dobrovsky
