Oh my fucking God, it was Jade!Was it?! I was so lovesick and heartbroken, I didn't trust myself.
"Hi, Sasha,” she sighed into the phone, all of me melting at the sound of her voice. At the sound of her voice calling meSasha. “I finally have a burner phone. It’s a flip phone, so I can sext you, but the images might be a little grainy.” She laughed, and I glanced towards Andrei, who was fighting with a smile and failing miserably.
I took the phone off speaker immediately and turned away from him. “Malyshka…are you safe?”
It had been a week since she sailed off on fucker Knox’s yacht, and I’d aged a decade.
"I'm safe, baby. After Vova almost chopped his hand off, he didn't dare to even look my way." Jade sighed and I nodded. “Thanks for arranging that, baby. That was the most romanticthing anyone has ever done for me." She giggled again, lighting up my whole soul.
Her words swirled in my mind, and like a complete idiot, I responded so formally. "Oh, anytime. I'm glad it worked out." Ugh. I was so out of sorts.
Her light laughter sounded in my ear, making me realize how stupid I sounded.
"You're cute. I miss you." Oh God, I was dying without her.
It hit me that Andrei was still in front of me, so I covered the phone with my hand and whispered loudly, "Get out!"
Surprisingly, his eyes didn’t fall out of his head from the intense eye roll he served me. "Come on! Give me some gossip!" he whispered in Russian. "Olya keeps asking if you two are okay after everything. Let me listen!"
Was he fucking kidding me? My life wasn't some soap opera to indulge in. I lunged toward him across the desk, and he flinched, getting the hint. He raised his hands and ceded. “Okay, okay. I’m gone.” I watched him exit the office and close the door, but not before he paused, testing my patience.
"I miss you so much, Jade. I think I’m actually going crazy.” Did I just fucking whimper? “Please,God,please just let me kill Knox. I’ll come get you in the middle of the night, and we can justfucking leave.Fuck it all!”
Jade sighed, responding with what I was sure was a smile on her face. "I love that you don't give up." I closed my eyes and drowned in memories of her, the sound of her voice lulling me into a fantasy where everything was perfect.
“But listen.” She suddenly turned serious and I shot my eyes open. “My father is arranging for an expedited search warrant for your office. Next week. Investigators will arrive and turn the whole place upside down.”
Of course.The writing was on the wall.
“They can’t find anything, Alex.Nothing.You have to clean it all! Don’t leave even a sticky note anywhere. Don’t give them any ammunition," Jade spoke somberly, and I listened without interrupting. “And also…they now know what you all look like. You, Andrei, Olga, your men. Slater gave up your names and addresses two days ago. Which is also how they know where your office is.”
We were falling off a cliff, just the way Andrei predicted.
"Fuck," I whispered, having no other words to say except, “When can I see you?" That's all I could focus on. I just wanted to see her.
"Soon,” she promised in that playful tone that got my dick hard in three fucking miserable seconds. "I'll call you in a few more days and we can figure it out, okay?"
Yeah, I was ready to do anything she told me.
"Yeah. Okay. I miss you, baby. I love you." I held onto the last of my sanity with the little strength I had.
"I love you, too. I'll call again soon. I promise." I nodded while the call disconnected, but then dropped my head back onto the chair, a heavy sigh stuck in my throat.
Soon. Soon seemed so far away.
My unfocused gaze slid around the office, and I knew there wasno waywe’d be able to clean it enough to destroy any mention of what we’d been involved in. Inevitably, they would find a trace of evidence.
I took a second to just breathe, just collect myself, just enough to make my next dumb decision—dialing Slater's number.
"Boss?"
Ah, his lying ass still preserved the illusion. "Hi, Alex," I repeated my own name back to him. Seven years.Seven yearsof hard work and trust, all flushed down the toilet.
The betrayal stung. He was paid well, he never caused any issues, and he always delivered what we wanted.
And what Moretti wanted, apparently.
"There’s a Grancabrio—this year's model. I’ve had a request from Moscow a few months ago." That was true; a contact in Russia had been asking for this car for a long time, but I couldn't find it. "It's finally been located near Sarasota. Can you go tonight to scope it out?"
