Page 135 of Lethal Obsession

“Only now he’s dead—and Kiril has nobody holding back his worst instincts.” I stare at Ofelia onscreen. “Seline didn’t find Ofelia by accident. I knew something was going on with the Novikovs. Christ. I could fucking feel it. I was just looking in the wrong place. I have men watching every move in Atlanta, while all this time, Ofelia was confiding in Kiril’s fucking sister, right under my nose.”

And this is wasting valuable time. Any minute now, Seline could arrive for another cozy fucking chat—with a horde of Novikovs at her back.

“I need to get Ofelia out of there today.” I’m thinking out loud. “I’ll have the dragons—her security,” I add for Papa’s benefit, “drive her to the finca. She’ll be safe there, until I can finish this.” My mind is whirling, already trying to outthink whoever is coming for us. “Thank you, Papa.” I meet his eyes. “For coming to me with this.”

My father nods curtly.

“Wait,” I say, as he begins to turn away. “Why did you come to me with this?” My eye narrows. “If you suspected Ofelia is in danger—why didn’t you go directly to Roman?”

“I should have.” His voice is hard with internal conflict. “I nearly did. But when I complimented Ofelia after her performance in Granada, do you know what she told me?”

I lift a shoulder, frowning.

“She said that before she began playing, she was extremely nervous. Then she said she heard my words in her head: Glaza boyatsya, a ruki delayut.”

The eyes are afraid, but the hands do.

The breath stops in my throat.

“Ofelia said that when she heard those words in her mind, she thought of me, by the river with Aleksander. Then, she said, her hands knew just what to do.” Papa’s eyes bore into mine down the line. “You are the only person I ever told that story to, Alexei. Darya might know the saying, but she doesn’t know where it came from, nor did your mother. Only you know about the day I faced the river. I knew, then, what I only suspected before.”

There are no words, no explanation I can make. Not without lying outright, and I won’t dishonor my father by doing that.

“You are my son, Alexei.” The resignation in his expression hurts more than Vilnus’s blade ever did. “I failed you once before—”

“No,” I say immediately. “It was my choice to stay in Miami.”

“I left you.” He goes on as if I hadn’t spoken. “And you suffered things no man ever should. I promised myself I would never choose anything over you again, and I will not.” His face hardens. “But although I owed you this warning, Alexei, I will not lie to Roman. He has a right to know that his daughter is in danger—and why.”

I stare at Ofelia on my screen. Wishing that I could touch her, one last time, before our worlds implode.

“At least let me warn her,” I say quietly. “She should hear it from me first.”

Papa nods. “But do it quickly,” he says. “Ofelia needs to leave today. Now. As soon as possible. We do not know when they will come for her.”

25

Ofelia

“Ofelia! Finally, you answer.” Seline sounds typically impatient, and I smile.

“I was practicing.”

“And of course, this is good. But I am at Los Italianos Heladería, and the ice cream here, it is incroyable. Spaniards are mostly peasants, but their ice cream is out of this world.”

I laugh. “You almost sound like an American, Seline.”

“Never insult me like this again.” Suddenly her accent is thicker than ever. No French person enjoys being mistaken for an American, but Seline is almost pathological about it. “But you must leave your practice and come to eat ice cream with me,” she goes on. “It is a beautiful day, and how many times will we be together in southern Spain, in the summer? Perhaps we will even take a walk. Have a little wine, eat some tapas.”

I give Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30, a guilty look. Known with dread by pianists as the “Rach 3,” it’s possibly the most difficult piano solo ever created.

After my performance at the Patio de los Arrayanes, Dittorio sent it to me by email, with a one-line instruction: Now it is time to learn this.

I’ve been battling the fucking thing ever since.

And the reality is that in between notes, all I can think about is when the secure line will ring and I can hear Alexei’s voice again.

You need to get out of this house, Ofelia.