The dreamy look in those brown eyes as she looked up at me didn’t leave my head for hours.
**********
“I can’t say she has found anything yet. But, so far, we agree on one thing: something is not adding up,” I told Viktor, leaning on Mikhail’s SUV.
I had gone to Mikhail’s warehouse for some business talk, only to meet Viktor about to leave. He had asked for an update on the forensic accounting ,and we were discussing it in front of the warehouse.
“Good.”
“She says we should have a direction in a day or two,” I told him.
“The audit must be clean, Konstantin. It’s beyond the corporate front.”
“I know, brother. We'll leave no stone unturned.”
“If the audit reveals anything that ties Alina to the leaks, you have to act,” he added.
I swallowed.
“Understood.”
“I’ll see you later, then. It’s getting late,” he said, walking away from the back of the car.
I had wished for a suspect not to be guilty for many reasons: they were so young, I couldn’t afford to waste a bullet at that moment, I didn’t trust myself not to mess things up because I was angry, the list went on and on. But, for the first time, I was making the same wish for one reason: myself.
I didn’t want to be without Alina anymore. I was enjoying knowing her as a person and not as a person of interest in Vitya’s acts; I didn’t feel like giving that up.
**********
I opened the door, and she was sitting in front of the dresser, brushing her hair.
“Hey! You didn’t even knock!” she called out as I stepped inside her room, a small smile playing on her lips. “What if I were undressed?”
“What if that was exactly what I was hoping for?” I shot back, shrugging.
She sucked in a breath and returned her gaze to the mirror in front of her. I chuckled at her reaction.
“You’ve not had dinner, have you?”
“Nope.”
“Have dinner with me,” I requested.
“Oh,” she said.
“What?” I inquired.
“Nothing. I just…I thought you just stopped by to say hi.”
“I want to eat with you,” I divulged.
“Okay,” she answered, looking up at me with a smile. “I'll be down in a minute.”
“No. We’re going together.”
“Okay,” she replied, chuckling as she dropped the hairbrush on the table and grabbed her hair to twist it.
“Leave it down,” I told her.
