I’ve seen what’s about to happen play out many times. Vitaly will enter the room. Aurora will gasp or scream. He’ll raise his gun with that little half-smile he gets when he’s about to kill someone.
One clean shot to the head.
The thought guts me, leaving me cold and hollow.
Not her.
Not her impossible, rebellious light.
I see that future with perfect, awful clarity. A world without her defiance or stubbornness. Without her courage. A black hole would open in my chest if she died.
I can’t lose her.
Raw, animalistic panic claws at my insides and threatens to shred me apart. I can’t let Vitaly reach that door. Roman can’t steal her from me before I’ve even figured out what she means.
“She’s not a witness.”
Vitaly stops mid-stride and peers over his shoulder with narrowed eyes.
Roman’s gaze doesn’t veer away from mine, his reaction unreadable.
Kolya remains motionless by the elevator, his stillness as threatening as a pointed gun.
“Then. What. Is. She?” Roman enunciates each word.
The shift inside me is instant.
Walls crumble. Six years of careful control, measured responses, and calculated decisions all fall away. Reckless, rampant, impulsive Alexei comes roaring back. The version of me that acts without thinking and follows instinct over reason.
The version that got MJ killed.
“She was only there because I was.” I mentally kick myself for what I’m about to say. “She’s my fiancée.”
Horror spreads through every cell in my body. Did I really just blurt that out loud?
A rare smile transforms Roman’s hard features. “Your fiancée.” The words drip with disbelief. “The cocktail waitress. In the maid costume. The one you met in an alley when you were ‘interrogating’ Benny.”
Of course someone’s already told him everything they know. “I didn’t meet her in the alley.”
“You didn’t?” Roman’s deceptively soft voice causes the back of my neck to tingle.
My gaze snaps to his. “No.”
“You met her before that?”
“I met her at Red Bird’s where she worked. We…hit it off, you could say.” Technically not a lie. “When I questioned Benny, Aurora was worried and followed us outside. He put a gun to her head, and I killed him for it. It was either her life or his. I had no choice.”
No lies. Nothing but the bald, broken, distorted truth.
He studies me without speaking, leaving me to sweat in the gathering silence. I watch as his sharp mind dissects my statements for truth and comes up short. “You tied her up in your car on the way home.”
Shit. How did I forget that detail? “Yes. She’s into kinky role play and wanted to test out an obsessed stalker scenario. I think she heard about it on social media.” I can’t believe the garbage spewing from my mouth.
Thankfully, Roman doesn’t ask for more details. His forehead creases as he peers at the broken window again, then the food on the counter, then Vitaly, who’s still frozen halfway to the guest bedroom door. His gaze slides to Kolya, and a silent communication passes between them. Kolya points to the litter box next to the elevator.
Then to the kitchen where the food and water bowls are on the floor.
“That’s Pixie’s. My fiancée’s cat’s. Can’t leave her at the apartment when Aurora’s here most of the time. And after the Benny incident, I didn’t want her there alone either.”
