Nicolai growled, his voice rough in his throat. “Everything has gone wrong. I need you to leave menow.I will get that twenty thousand dollars from Ueli for you, and I will find some way to hide you. Some of my security operators have intelligence service experience. I will find a way to make you a new identity. I’m so sorry, Lexi. I’m so sorry. I’ll keep you safe, but I’m going to need you to leaveright now.”
CHAPTER 14
v-man who must not be named near phones
LEXI
Because I am an idiot and evidently didn’t like being kissed and cradled in Nicolai’s arms, I shoved at his chest, pushing Nicolai away from myself.
He stumbled backward, his arms dropping to his sides.
“What the hell are you talking about?” I demanded. “I told you that I’m not leaving you to deal with this alone. Isawthe video.”
“Not all of it.”
“It doesn’t matter. I told you I won’t leave you in this situation.”
I let myself believe that I desperately wanted to stay with him just for the money, that it wasonlybecause I desperately needed his money that he’d promised me to change my life.
I knew it wasn’t the money, but I didn’t let myself believe I’d been a sucker for a man, for anyone really, again and so soon.
“The incident that happened while you and Clementine were down in the lobby?—”
“Yeah, there were threats. You told me that your life was one threat after another. I believe you. I understand that it happened again. It doesn’t change anything for me.”
“This is different, my angel. Terrible people threatened me. Professional people who believe killing me might be necessary to achieve their goals. They want power, and they are ruthless. They will kill you if I don’t do as they say, and then they’ll kill me so that Kostya will be their puppet. And if he won’t dance on the ends of their strings, they’ll kill him and go on to Ryan. They won’t stop killing people I love until they get what they want.”
Stop killing people he—what?No, not right now. “I don’t care what kind of threat it was. It was a threat. I get that. We don’t need to quibble about the exact nature of yet another threat that we both understood was part of your situation.”
“Lexi, listen to me. This was different. The man who was waiting in my suite when you and Clementine left?—”
Shock jolted me. “Someone was waiting for you inhere?”
“A man. An SVR officer.”
“I don’t know what those letters mean.”
“Russian intelligence services. It’s the modern name for the KGB, but if anything, they’re worse.”
“How did a secret agent fromRussiaget into your hotel suite without anybody seeing him?” I asked because, dang, that seemed unlikely.
“We don’t know. He said they had hacked the video feeds. Ueli confirmed that the security footage showed no one slipping in or out of the suite.”
“To heck with the security cameras. Ueli and Dusha werein the living roomwhen we got up this morning. You said that yourguys were standing out in the hallway all night long, guarding the door.”
“It doesn’t matterhowhe got in, only that hedid.”
“It kind of matters. What, did he come in those windows, the ones that don’t open and that’s why it’s always somoistin here? Clementine is right. Billionaire Sanctuary is a case of sick building syndrome just waiting to happen.”
“Immaterial.”
“But there’s no balcony or railings or stairs outside the windows. Your guys were guarding the doors all night.How the heck did he get in here?”
Nicolai paused, and his gaze drifted to the side like he was turning over my questions in his mind, but then he drew a breath and straightened. “However he got in here, and I’m going to look into that, he was an emissary from the Russian government.”
“You mean Vladimir Poo?—”
“Supposedly,we shouldn’t say that name around electronics. I’m not sure how paranoid we should be, but let’s err on the side of caution for a few hours at least.”
