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Everything screeched to a halt inside of me.
He chuckled mockingly at my silence. “You had no idea, did you? No idea at all. Well, here’s the truth. Gregor Dimitri Makarov is a hitter for the fucking Russian mob. That’s how he was able to get your kid back. He’s more connected than the Ivanovs. He’s a goddamn made man, or whatever those fucking Russians call it.”
“This is bullshit. You’re making all of this up because you don’t even begin to measure up to him. This is all a lie you’re telling to try to mess with my head. But I know better than to trust you now! Did you forget that?” Keeping my voice low took every ounce of my self-control.
“Oh, come on, think about it. Use your little girly brain for once in your life.” His voice was dripping with disdain. “Howcould anyone have possibly found where they were keeping your kid in just a few days if they weren’t connected?”
“How the hell do you even know all this?” I demanded.
He laughed. “After our confrontation, I looked the guy up on the system at work. We’ve never gotten enough on him to bring him in, but he’s connected to over a dozen murders and disappearances throughout the city. And that’s just in the last ten years.”
I was cold. I had to clench my jaw to keep my teeth from chattering. How could he be talking about Gregor? The man who had saved my daughter? The man who had saved me? The only man I wanted and the source of my safety. How could this be true? How?
“Nothing to say?” he mocked.
I drew in a breath as quietly as I could, afraid of sobbing. “This can’t be true. You’re just…” I trailed off, and he chuckled nastily. He could tell he’d gotten to me. But mocking me more was a mistake. I suddenly found my anger again. “What the hell is the point of telling me this?”
“Just wanting to protect you from him. I mean, apparently, you’ve got an idea that this guy’s some kind of hero. But he didn’t threaten me with internal affairs or a lawsuit when he ran into me outside your house that night. No. He straight up threatened my life.”
“Only because you were threatening mine.”
“Hey.” He tried to sound condescending again but there was a touch of wheedling in it. “You really need to stop trying to makeme sound like the bad guy here. All I did was try and get you back.”
“With a knife and chloroform?”
He plowed on again, pretending he didn’t hear me. “This guy’s an actual killer. He’s dangerous, he’s a criminal, and he’s a million times worse than me. So if you’re about to go to the press and make this guy into a hero, you should know you’re playing right into the mob’s hands. And endangering yourself and that stupid fucking kid of yours in the process.”
Hearing him talk about my daughter was like a splash of cold water to the face.
“I don’t have time for this,” I snapped, but he just chuckled again. “Gregor’s already proven himself to be a better man than you. I can’t imagine for a moment that he’s actually a mobster.”
But then again, it had taken me four months to realize that Alan was a bad cop and a shitty boyfriend. And howhadGregor succeeded so fast in finding Michelle?
“Yeah, you can be stupid and not believe me. Go into denial about your new bodyguard. Or is he your lover?” His tone was a sharp whipcrack of anger.
“So that’s what this is really about,” I breathed in a moment of terrible clarity. Alan had already gone full stalker on me. Of course he was now jealous of any man who got anywhere near me. “You’re jealous of a guy I’ve known for a couple of weeks.”
“Did you fuck him?” he demanded suddenly.
“I’m hanging up now.”
“Did you fuck him?” His scream stung my ears and I jumped.
But then I got ahold of myself and got even more pissed. “Yeah, I fucked him. And my neighbor, and the mailman, and my three in-town clients since we broke up. I’m just one giant whoring machine. I’m so damn horny I can barely resist spreading my legs for everyone on the planet who isn’t you.”
“Fuck you,” he muttered, his rage losing steam almost immediately.
“No, thank you.”
He hung up, and I sagged with relief. But it was short-lived. The doubts he had planted in my head weren’t going away. And whenever Gregor got back from his weird past-midnight activities, he and I had to talk.
I wasn’t looking forward to it.
***
It was almost dawn by the time I heard a key in the lock and the beeps of the security system being turned off. I stiffened in my seat on the couch, my stomach jumping around. I hadn’t been able to sleep in his absence. I hadn’t been able to do anything besides sit and wait and fear what would happen when Gregor finally got home.
And now he was home, and my heart started beating so fast it made me dizzy.Please let Alan be wrong. Please let there be another explanation.
