24. Xander #2
“Come.” She was off again, going left when we came to a branch in the hallway. “Your father’s picking you up after. He insisted on taking you out for your birthday, so we don’t have as much time as I’d like. We’d better get started.”
I shuddered at the memory, one hand going out to the cold tile to steady myself.
I hadn’t made it to the birthday dinner.
In a rare act of mercy, he’d taken one look at me when I’d gotten in his car and had his driver take us straight to his residence.
I’d barely made it inside before throwing up until I was sure every bit of food I’d had in my body was in that toilet bowl.
He’d never come up to check on me. Instead, he had a maid bring up some soup and crackers a few hours later. The next day, he’d acted as if nothing had happened and told my mother he’d had to take a last-minute conference call, thus canceling our reservations.
The hand on the tile fisted when the next memory hit me—one I tried to keep back the most.
“Alex, solnyshkuh,“ I called as I opened the door to the apartment. I stopped before I’d even walked a full step inside.
Hair on the back of my neck rose, and I reached for one of several guns I was never without.
It was too dark, too quiet. All the lights were off; the curtains of every room pulled.
Alex always had the windows open, allowing her to hear the street below and the birds singing, even when it was cold.
I went room by room, clearing every crevice, looking under every bed and behind the furniture, but she was nowhere to be found.
And the apartment, it didn’t look right.
It was a mess, but it wasn’t until I turned the lights on I realized what was wrong.
It wasn’t an Alex-nado mess; the entire apartment had been tossed.
Numb, my feet slowly brought me back to our bedroom, where we’d made love just hours before.
The sheets were shredded, pillows nothing but fluff.
It was completely void of Alex. Not just her, but the picture of us that she kept on the nightstand was missing.
Her clothes, usually scattered everywhere, were gone.
Another glance in the bathroom and closet revealed even her damn toothbrush was missing. Apart from the mess, there wasn’t a sign anyone had been here and not a single thing of Alex’s remained.
I was still standing there, minutes or hours later, when Viktor let himself into the apartment, his face carved from the same stone as mine.
“Please,” I begged for what was probably the first time in my life. “Tell me she finally realized she was better off without me. That she left on her own accord and got on a plane to go back to America.”
The slow shake of Viktor’s head tore my already dying heart in two. The pain was so visceral, I held a hand to my chest as my legs gave out. Viktor tried to catch me, but he only succeeded in toppling to the floor with me.
“I-I’ve got to find her. We know the—“ I swallowed. “Shipping routes. If we can track down where she was sent, I can meet it before—”
Viktor’s hand came to rest hard on my shoulder, squeezing until I stopped and met his gaze.
“She’s having you watched, Demi. One wrong step, if she even thinks you’re half as hung up on this girl as she thinks you are, she’ll order her killed out of spite right now.
And you know she’ll see your emotion as weakness. ”
Before he could continue, my phone chimed. My presence was required immediately.
“Steel yourself,” Viktor coached, helping me up from the floor.
I paused long enough to take a few deep breaths, hoping the pain of Alex missing—of knowing exactly what she might be going through at this moment—wasn’t written all over my face. I felt as if I’d swallowed glass. Internally, I was bleeding out via a thousand small cuts.
A car pulled up in front as we exited, and the driver opened the door for me. Vik shot me one last look of warning before heading to the security car behind mine.
“Mother,” I said, keeping my voice monotone. There was a small cut on the side of her face, near her temple, that hadn’t been there that morning. I allowed a flash of satisfaction. My Alex hadn’t gone down without a fight.
“We’re having an issue with the East China Sea route. It’s the second time we’ve had difficulties with the port inspector. I’m sending you to straighten him out or eliminate him and school the replacement on expectations when it comes to working with us.”
She paused, looking up at me for the first time since I’d stepped up to the car. “I’m assuming now that I have your full attention again, I won’t have any more problems when it comes to your priorities and focus,” she asked, her words impassive yet full of venom.
I shrugged, every bit of willpower I possessed keeping my body language casual and unaffected.
“You made your point, mother. But I have to say, I’m surprised at your …
overreaction to a passing fancy.” I let amusement enter my tone at her flash of temper.
“What? You thought I was stuck on some American fluff?” I snorted, adding fuel to the flames.
But getting a rise out of her would be the only way I could ensure Alex wouldn’t take up another thought in my mother’s brain.
I’d do what was needed. “She was a nice diversion, though. I’ll give you that. ”
Irina sneered. “Just keep your attention on the ones at your disposal from here on out.”
I actually chuckled. “Some of us prefer our bedmates enthusiasm to come from a place other than fear of failure. But since you seem a bit … sensitive … to having another woman in my life, I’ll keep my sex life more discreet.”
She was so upset at my calling her jealous she seemed beyond words.
Never before had I taunted her, too worried about toeing the line.
But losing Alex meant Irina lost her biggest bargaining chip in keeping me in line.
She’d played this hand wrong in her quest to keep me under control.
Her second mistake was sending Viktor along with me.
She might have plenty of her men accompanying us, but they couldn’t keep an eye on both of us.
A few days of slipping in and out of our group had them complacent of Viktor’s whereabouts, and I was able to slip him on board a freight car heading for Poland.
We’d been preparing for our escape for almost our entire lives and kept several sets of documents and money ready, hidden in bags and storage lockers in various countries.
It was a risk sending Viktor so closely to Alex’s kidnapping, but I couldn’t bear having her in that world one more second than it would take for him to track her.
Viktor and I had carefully begun placing distance between us in public for years.
He was my security but didn’t have much of an actual role within the organization, so his absence wasn’t quickly noticed.
I told the group with me at the port that I’d sent him back to oversee security in my new condo.
The condo wasn’t fabricated. I knew I couldn’t stay in that apartment …
our apartment … with the memories of Alex in every room, knowing the horror of what she was going through.
I’d tried to stay away from her, fearing what would happen to her when it all came crashing down.
But no matter how hard I fought, Alex not only reeled me in but seemed to completely disregard my attempts at explaining the danger around me.
It was because of me that life had shattered the sunny, innocent girl I’d loved with every fiber of my being, creating a woman so much stronger yet a shadow of the woman she should have become.