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“I probably won’t be able to think straight if you’re out of my sight, anyway,” he said, kissing me before pulling back onto the road.
We drove to an apartment building, every bit as luxurious as Aleksei’s and the one my mother had rented, and he called Sofia before we got out of the car.
“It would be in your best interest if I lived through this conversation,” he told her.
I strained to hear her answer and couldn’t, but whatever she said was good enough for Aleksei, and we headed up the elevator. A dead-eyed man stood sentinel in front of her doorway, barely changing expressions when Aleksei greeted him.
“She’s not happy, Aleksei,” he said.
“What I have to tell her isn’t going to improve her mood,” he replied grimly. “But things don’t have to go badly for you. You have a place in our organization if you want it. Remember that when she throws me out of here screaming for my head.”
The inscrutable guard barely nodded. “I’ll keep it in mind.” He knocked once on the door and opened it, nodding for us to go through.
The place was furnished in stark white with sparse splashes of hot pink and silver being the only accent colors in the place. I felt like I was inside a tissue box with all the white. Sofia sat at a glass and chrome table near the window, her chin on her hand. She glanced at Aleksei dully, then stood up when she saw me, throwing a crystal decanter at him.
He ducked, and it smashed on the bare white wall behind us. I almost wanted to ask where all the art she’d been buying was, then I remembered she was furnishing a house elsewhere. The house she and Aleksei were meant to live in together.
“You dare to bring her here?” she asked, sitting back down when she saw that breaking her expensive things wasn’t going to get a rise out of Aleksei. “You haven’t humiliated me enough?” She reached for her phone. “My father’s been looking for you. He wants a word about your betrayal.”
Aleksei strode across the room and took the phone from her hand and placed it back on the table. “He found me, Sofia. And now he’s dead.”
I was shocked at how bluntly he broke the news, biting back a gasp. Sofia shook her head in disbelief, then quickly saw how serious he was. Her face turned red, her eyes widening and filling with tears. My heart started to clench. Then she launched herself at Aleksei, clawing at his already ragged face, and pummeling him with her fists.
“You son of a bitch,” she yelled. “Your betrayal wasn’t enough? You couldn’t just toss me aside like so much garbage, you had to make sure I was left alone in the world, too?”
She continued calling him names and swearing while hitting him, and I realized she wasn’t crying and lashing out from grief. The look on her face was pure anger. She was pissed off that she hadn’t gotten her way, plain and simple. With Aleksei doing nothing to fight back, her tantrum subsided, and she slid back onto her chair, breathing heavily and glaring at him. It was like I no longer existed. She knew there was no way she was going to marry him anymore, and her mind had switched gears to whatever might be next best for her. It was rather fascinating to watch, like viewing a shark through safety glass.
“I don’t want to go back to Russia,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “I can make things difficult for your family there, you know. It’s better if I stay here.”
“Call off your men, and we might be able to work out a deal,” Aleksei said, crossing his own arms and staring down at her.
“Can I still marry your cousin?”
Aleksei huffed impatiently. “You’ll have to take that up with Ivan. He’ll be more amenable if your people stop blowing up our buildings, though.”
“I’ll see what I can do. Now get out. Both of you make me sick to look at.”
Aleksei turned away, rolling his eyes at me as we left the apartment. He nodded wordlessly to the guard, who smiled a little wider than when we entered.
I stayed glued to Aleksei’s side the rest of the day as he sorted out the mayhem caused by the Pavlovs. I wouldn’t stay in the car when he inspected the rubble of his destroyed building, and was right beside him when he spoke to his employees at the bars that were ransacked. We visited the two who ended up in the hospital, and on the way, he made me eat a turkey sandwich and drink a carton of milk. I was able to get him to compromise on chocolate milk, not even realizing how famished I was until he fed me the first bite. He would only eat something after he saw his people in the hospital and was certain they’d be all right.
By the time we got back to his place, it was late at night and he insisted on carrying me up because I couldn’t stifle a yawn in time, and he saw it. He left me on his bed while he showered off the blood and seawater from what seemed like years ago. Left to my own devices and now that there wasn’t anything pressing to keep my attention, the fact I’d killed someone started weighing on me. Yes, it was necessary, and yes, I’d do it again, but someone was dead because of me. Roman Pavlov might have lived another thirty years if it weren’t for me.
When Aleksei came out of the shower with a towel wrapped around his slim hips, I couldn’t even take comfort in his glistening abs. He noticed my morose mood right away and hurried to my side, putting an arm around me.
“It’s hitting you now, isn’t it?”
I nodded. “I wish I didn’t have to do it,” I said with a gulp.
He squeezed me close. “I might not be here if you hadn’t.”
“I didn’t say I wish I didn’t do it, just that I didn’t have to,” I clarified. “It was always going to be you over him.”
“I’m proud of you. You showed such courage, it took my breath away.” He tipped my chin up and kissed me, then smiled. “I want you more than ever.”
“You’ve got me,” I said, running my hand up under his towel.
His blue eyes searched my face. “I love you, Theresa.”
