His shoulders go tight in a way that makes the whole corridor feel dangerous.
I stay where I am, a step behind him, trying to catch up. “You know her.”
Alena’s eyes flick to me, amused. “That’s one word for it.”
Aleksei doesn’t look back. “Go downstairs, Zatanna.”
“No.”
Both of them glance at me.
I fold my arms, pulse still racing. “I already messed this up once. I’m not walking away now.”
Alena’s red mouth curves. “She has a spine. That’s inconvenient.”
Aleksei ignores her. “Alena, leave.”
She gives a delicate shrug. “Why would I? We were finally about to have an honest conversation.”
“With you?” His voice drops. “Unlikely.”
For the first time, something like irritation breaks through her polished expression. “You always did think morality was a luxury only you could afford.”
“And you always did mistake appetite for intelligence.”
I look between them, piecing things together from tone more than facts. This is not just some random socialite with a grudge. This is history. Deep history. The kind that still has teeth.
“What is this?” I ask. “Who is she?”
Aleksei’s jaw flexes. He doesn’t answer.
Alena does. “We were together,” she says. “Once.”
I blink.Oh. That explains the loaded stare. The easy venom. The way he said her name like it was a weapon.
“She likes to leave out the part where she was also useful to my father,” Aleksei says flatly.
Alena’s gaze sharpens. “Useful is such an ugly word.”
“It fits.”
“You make it sound like I betrayed some sacred thing.” Her laugh is brittle now. “You never trusted anyone enough to be betrayed.”
Something moves in Aleksei’s face then, dark and old. “I trusted you not to sell my weaknesses.” She goes very still. “And yet,” he says, “here we are.” The words barely finish leaving his mouth before the corridor glass behind us explodes.
The sound is enormous. Shattering crystal and a sharp crack that my brain only recognizes a second later as a gunshot.
Everything happens at once.
Aleksei turns, fast, but I’m already moving on pure panic. I slam into him with both hands, hard enough to knock him sideways just as another shot rips through the wall where his chest had been a heartbeat earlier.
We crash to the floor.
His arm wraps around me instantly, curling over my head as glass rains down. Someone is shouting. Maybe me.
Aleksei rolls, dragging me behind the heavy carved console outside the suite door.
“Stay down,” he snaps.
