He turns and walks away, his stride unhurried, controlled, as if nothing out of the ordinary has happened. I watch him go, chest tight. The fire he lit inside me has calmed to embers, but they make my throat so hot I worry they’ll never go out.
Cinn’s voice cuts through the haze, the exit banging open obscenely. “Hmm. Looks like I missed something… were you ‘thanking’ your knight in shining armor?”
I ignore her, forcing my breath to steady as I step inside and Devin pulls Cinn away. It takes only seconds to arrange an Uber, minutes for it to arrive. No one at The Foundry says anything to me as I walk out, but I can feel their eyes trailing me.
In the uber, I replay everything I shouldn’t want. My phone rings halfway home.
Dad.
He can’t know…?
“Hey.” My hands are still trembling when I answer, though thankfully my voice is flat.
“Aly,” Liev says, his voice polite and restrained. It makes my heart ache, and for a moment guilt pricks at me. “I just wanted to check in. When we talked earlier… I’m sorry I upset you.”
“I’m fine,” I lie automatically, not wanting to think about his suggestion that I take an office job at Baranov Tech.
He hums, ignoring my words. “I talked to Kazimir earlier. He’s been busy tonight, tied up across town. But I let him know that you gratefully declined the offer.”
Across town.
The confirmation hits like a cold splash of water, sobering. My grip tightens on the phone.
“Oh,” I say, forcing myself to sound uncaring. “Thank you. I—I’m sorry if I overreacted. I just have my own plans, Dad, and?—”
“I know. I’ll try to stop changing your plans. I just wanted to let you know, and to offer… if there’s anything I can do…”
You can ask your boss to stop stalking me.
But as my heart thuds loudly in my ears, I know that’s not what I want.
I say a tired, quick goodbye, squirming under the discomfort of lying to my father and finding out that Kazimir Baranov has been lying to his right-hand man. His supposed best friend.
Has been watching me for months.
Whatever is happening between us, it’s far more dangerous than I could’ve imagined. And I might just have the Bratva boss under my control.
Chapter 5
Kazimir
Exactly half of the wall at Baranov Tech Conference Center is glass, running horizontally the length of the building. When guests first walk in, it’s stunning, but even more so when they realize it overlooks the tarmac and my private fleet of aircraft.
The men behind me have no interest in what’s outside. They’ve seen it a million times before. They discuss business amongst themselves – some in suits, others in civilian clothing; some in murmurs, others insistently.
They know better than to interrupt when my attention drifts, which it does now, drawn to the jet parked nearest the hangar. Fresh blue and white paint catch the light, its interior stripped down and rebuilt to my specifications just weeks ago. Italian leather and dark wood. The plan is perfect, which is the problem. It’s the same aircraft that brought Alyona Demsky to the United States seven years ago. She was so pale and fragile. Anyone who saw her could see she was exhausted. Her eyes were red-rimmed from grief, although she refused to cry in front of anyone. She just stood there clutching a single carry-on.
Did I fall for her then?
It’s hard to know; but I don’t think so, even now, after getting a taste – a touch – of her last night.
No, I was younger then too. Sharp around the edges and less practiced at compartmentalizing. Is it sick that I’m obsessed with a woman eighteen years younger than me? Probably. But she’s never been agirl,not really, not after everything she’s been through.
She stepped off that plane as an adult. Wrecked, confused, and pulling away from Liev immediately.
That’s the real problem here.
She’s my best friend’s daughter.
