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“Thanks,” Gideon said. “I’m going to head to my office to get started on Rudy Kramer. When Mel is finished with Alex, send her to my office. I’ll show her around the compound.”
Twenty minutes later, as Gideon was online, digging into Rudy Kramer’s life, someone knocked on his office door. “C’mon in,” he called.
Alex stepped through the door and dropped into the visitor’s chair beside his desk. He swiveled to study her, noticing the weariness in her expression. “You okay?”’
“I’m fine. Still tired, I guess. Mel asked me to start at the beginning and tell her everything. So I did.”
Gideon leaned toward her, enjoying how her pupils dilated. “Not everything, I hope.”
“No personal details,” she said primly, but her eyes twinkled. “Those are on a need-to-know basis, and Mel and Devlin are not on that list.”
“Good to know. I probably had the same conversation with Dev that you had with Mel.”
Alex nodded as she looked around his office. There wasn’t much to see, because he hadn’t been here much. A computer on his desk, mostly empty bookcases, and a file cabinet in one corner that was also mostly empty.
“Did you and Devlin talk about what we do next? How we get out of here and get home?”
Something twisted inside Gideon at the word ‘home’. He wanted more time with Alex, but he didn’t know how that could happen. Although maybe this energy between them was the result of the high emotional pitch they’d been living at. When that was resolved, would their budding relationship fall apart?
Refusing to dwell on that, he said, “This is my home, at least for now,” he told her, taking a deep breath. “I know you have a law practice, and you need to work. We’ll figure out how to eliminate the threat to you. Best case scenario, Trotter and the two Russians end up in jail and you go back to Evanston.”
Alex narrowed her eyes at him. “And you think the Russians will forget about the money Jerry stole from them? They won’t try to get it back?”
Gideon sighed. Studied Alex for a long moment. “You’re not married to him anymore,” he began.
Alex snorted. “You think that will stop them? From what you told me about the Bratva, they’d consider that a technicality. And the truth is, I do have money I took out of Jerry’s safe. Money that probably came from his laundering-slash-skimming operation.”
Gideon shoved his fingers through his hair. He didn’t give a damn about Trotter’s money. But Alex was right. If Trotter was in prison, or in the Witness Protection program, the Russian mafia might come after her for that money. And that would be a huge problem for Alex. “I’ll brainstorm that with Mel and Dev. I honestly don’t know what we do about that. Do you have any idea how much you took?”
She shook her head. “I just grabbed some of it and the files. Shoved them into my bag and took off. But based on the size of the stack, I’d guess close to a hundred thousand dollars.”
It was the first time she’d mentioned files. He definitely needed to see those. But instead of saying anything about the files, Gideon whistled. “That’s not chump change.”
“No,” she said quietly. “And they’re probably not the forgiving type.”
“You said you didn’t take all of it. Maybe we can make them think what’s in that safe is all Trotter had left.”
She shrugged one shoulder. “Maybe.” She didn’t look convinced.
“We’ll figure out something, Alex,” he said. “No way will you go back to Evanston until we’re certain you’ll be safe.”
She leaned her head against the back of the chair. “Jerry. The gift that keeps on giving.”
Gideon pushed his chair away from his desk. “C’mon. I’ll show you around the compound. Including the gym. We have every kind of exercise equipment imaginable, and you’re welcome to use whatever you want. Especially if we’re here for a while.”
Alex pushed out of her chair. Sighed. “If I’m going to be here for a while, yeah. I’ll need to use that exercise equipment. Since there’s not much else to do.”
Gideon leaned close enough to catch the orange scent of her hair. “Oh, I can think of a thing or two.”
