Page 52 of Vienna Bliss

“If you’d been here I would have…” She heaved a breath, and then slowly raised her head. “But I realize I can’t tell you.”

“Why?” He turned around, a sense of dread making his hands fist, his word short and hard.

“Because I’m worried you’ll kill him.”

Alexander froze.

She still wasn’t looking at him.

“But worse than that,” she continued. “I’m worried you’ll…I’m worried you’ll get in your head about this.”

He didn’t know what she meant by that, and it wasn’t nearly as important as her first statement. “Kill who?”

Alena shifted on the bed, untangling her legs so she could turn to face him, still on her knees. She scooped her tangled hair behind her ears in an uncharacteristically nervous gesture.

Then she looked up, and the skin around her eyes was puffy and pink. She’d been crying.

Alexander walked slowly towards the bed, watching her for any hint that he was frightening her. When he reached the bed, he knelt down beside it, making himself as small and unthreatening as possible.

“Who made you cry?” he asked softly.

Her lips twitched, but there was no smile. She looked younger than she ever had before, and he realized it was because she didn’t seem poised or self-assured.

“Will you kill him?”

“Probably.”

Now there was a smile, small and brief. “You’re supposed to say ‘no’.”

“I can pay someone to kill him instead.”

As he hoped, that made her smile return. Alena leaned down, planting her elbows on the mattress. “Absolon.”

Alexander blinked.

“Not who you expected?” she asked.

“No. I expected Rolf.” His first thought had been that the Interpol agent had suggested doing something, adding something, to the event that had scared her.

“We thought maybe Absolon was just in it for money. Not that he believed what the extremists did.” Alena pushed herself up so she was braced on her hands, while still sitting back on her knees.

“But?” Alexander asked.

“He definitely drank that Kool-Aid.” She once more tucked her hair back in that nervous gesture. “He thinks women are inferior, feminism is what’s wrong with society…” She laughed, a hollow sound.

“What did he say to you?”

Alena looked at him, their gazes meeting. “It wasn’t just words,” she whispered.

Icy rage caged his heart, and Alexander had to work to keep his voice soft. “He put his hands on you?”

“Yes.”

He was going to kill him. With his own fucking hands.

But first, he would take care of Alena. Whatever Absolon had done, it had scared her, made her seem small in a way he’d never seen her before.

Alexander slowly rose, gingerly sitting on the side of the bed. Words, never his strong suit, escaped him, so he opened his arms.