“I don’t understand. What does he—my client!” I stood up like my whole body was on springs. “Alexi is my client? How the hell did he find out about Elite?”
Rory shrugged. “My guess is the same way as everyone else. Word of mouth. You have a good thing going with that business.”
I paced the living room. “That’s why he was always there. The messages he got were Veronika canceling his appointments becauseI’dcanceled the appointments. That was why I couldn’taccess his record. He was a high-profile client.” I ran my hands through my hair so much that I probably looked like a crazed person. “What does he want with Elite?”
“You’ll have to ask him that.”
The doorbell buzzed, making me jump.
“That’ll be the food. I’ll get it.” Rory went over to the door and buzzed the delivery guy in like he’d been to my apartment a thousand times.
I felt numb as the realization that everything had just gotten a thousand times more complicated hit me.
“Come on, let’s eat. Sergei is on his way here. He’s just had dinner with Alexi and dropped him off at his dorm. We can figure out how to stop those rumors about your company from getting out so you can figure out the rest.”
“The rest?”
“You have to tell Alexi about Elite. He’ll keep your secret, I’m sure of it. And then you can stay friends and hang out without all those secrets over your head.”
Friends…right.
At least one thing was still only mine and Alexi’s. Our relationship.
All that remained was figuring out everything else.
“I’ll call Marco to come over.”
14
ALEXI
I draggedmy feet again as I took the bus and then walked to another area of the city I hadn’t been in.
After sending the Elite Connections contact an email saying I no longer required their services, I was surprised to get an email asking to meet their agent. This time, I wasn’t given the name and address of a coffee shop but what looked like a home address.
I’d been living a pretty normal life since moving to the US, but I wasn’t naive. When I got the address, I contacted my Uncle Sergei to check if it was safe to go there. He said it was, so I was apprehensive but also curious.
The flight back from Connecticut two days ago had been torture. Uncle Rory and Sergei had insisted on coming with me. Rory said he wanted to visit a friend he knew from college, and since my parents’ private jet was already coming this way, they might as well come.
Pretending to be fine when I was anything but was the closest I got to real acting. No awards for me when, after Rory left us, Sergei took me to a restaurant for dinner and made me open up.
Considering he was an overprotective grump most of the time, he could be really kind and gentle when he wanted.
Troy’s voice message played on a loop in my head. I felt so bad about how I’d treated him, and the more I talked to Sergei, the more I believed that Troy had initially refused to “spy” on me.
Like my dad said, we should have communicated better, and that was on both of us, but I should have listened when he wanted to talk at the party.
So, my current lack of interest in anything, including meeting the Elite person, was due to not hearing from Troy since he’d left the voice message.
I found the right building and rang the buzzer. A moment later, the lock released, so I pushed the door open.
My anxiety spiked. Was this a good idea? Going into a building on my own to meet someone who had canceled on me repeatedly?
The whole elevator ride up, I debated going straight down as soon as it arrived on the top floor, but my feet carried me forward until I was in front of the correct door.
When the door opened, all blood drained from my face when instead of the Elite person, I found myself face to face with— “Troy?”
I fell a few steps back, but he grabbed my hand to keep me steady.
