He paused, the leather seat creaking when he stiffened.
I crossed my arms over my chest with a slight shake of my head. “You really enjoy being miserable and stupid, don’t you?” My voice was level, calm, not portraying any of the disgust I felt, only the pity. “Does acting like this give you a reason to hate everyone, so you don’t have to hate yourself? I guess it doesn’t matter. If you can’t do your job, I’ll call Big Brother and get you replaced. He’s been doing that a lot recently, right? I wonder what he’d do to you because you’re hindering my investigation of the people that tried to kill your daddy.” I poured all my disgust and haughtiness into my eyes.
He slowly stood up to turn on his heel and storm out.
The door slammed hard enough to make me wince, echoing off the wood trim and bookcase covering the left wall. “Cool.” Grabbing the chair, I wheeled it back to its spot to sit and type in my dad’s password. Squinting at the screen, a tiny smile tilted my lips. “That works, too.”
My smile didn’t last long, though. I didn’t like acting this way, being hurtful to others because it was how I had to be. Nothing was worse than having a stranger talk down to me. Nothing was worse than telling someone I didn’t know opinions based on a minute of interaction. Granted, Lyov was an extreme baby of a man, but that gross taste in my mouth was still intense.
8
Sascha
My phone buzzed for the 50th time in about as many minutes, and I sat down to fish it out of my briefcase. I was fairly certain Ophelia wasn’t having an emergency because of the regularity of the texts. Whenever she was embroiled in her work, she’d blow up my phone just to express whatever she was feeling.
I thought it was cute, and I liked how she didn’t expect an answer, especially when I was teaching.
“Professor Matheson?”
Pausing unlocking my screen, I glanced up under furrowed brows at that familiar but not too familiar voice.
Malda stood, waiting, watching me expectantly. “Can I have a moment?”
I turned my phone against my leg. “You’re not one of my students, Malda.”
She rolled her eyes at me, gesturing to my office door behind me with a wave of her hand.
I only arched a brow, trying fruitlessly to hide my scowl. “What can I help you with? I already had a one sided conversation this week.”
“With Kiri, yes I know. It won’t be happening again. I’m not here as your student. We need to talk and I thought you’d want to do that privately.”
I almost groaned aloud at this little tidbit of infuriating information. Malda was so grumpy that it rubbed off on me immediately. I stood up to slide my phone into my pocket.
“Have you talked to Ophelia this morning?” she asked.
“I was about to text her, why? Is this going to be an everyday thing?” Walking into my office, I ground my teeth as my phone continued to vibrate in my pocket. “To what do I owe the nuisance?”
Malda nodded her business-slash-professional attire seemingly out of place at university. “Yesterday, you said you’d go after Vyachaslav’s daughters if you did have a slimy motive, and one happens to text you the moment I leave. Why did you agree to that?”
My heart nearly stopped at that casual admittance, and my eyes narrowed on Malda. “I assume that whatever you did to my phone lets you record conversations… So you know that she talked at me.” She must’ve cloned my phone yesterday while we were talking. Reaching to scratch my beard, I sat on the edge of my desk to cross my arms over my chest. “I’m not in a position to deny anything creepy, uncertain, or vague. Oppie’s more than capable of handling herself, but any help I can give her is more than she’s got.”
“You expect me to believe your phone has been going on with variations of ‘oh my god’ with every different kind of shock emoji for the past hour as a sign she can handle herself?” Malda glared at me. “The only thing it proves is she’s smart enough not to disclose details via text. I’m not saying you’re not just the good guy into chicks half your age that you claim to be, Sascha…. It’s just that I don’t believe you.”
Rolling my jaw, I only bopped my head at this, since I’d have to figure out this phone situation now. “Four years… it’ll take you about that long to figure out I’m not lying.”
She frowned at the idea of spending that long tailing me, but it served her right.
I shook my head. “Do you know why I put up with knowing all the things I shouldn’t know about, Malda? Why I put up with you, and Aleksander, and Vyachaslav…all of it? Because Ophelia is a wonderful, beautiful woman, and I was born 15 years too early. Everything goes on around her, she’s the calm eye in a raging hurricane.”
“Very philosophical way to put it.” Malda sounded very unimpressed.
It was what I truly thought. If only my brother and I had been born opposite, the age difference between Ophelia and I wouldn’t matter.
“Sascha. You haven’t given me anything to doubt how much you care purely for Ophelia, and that’s the problem. You have a perfect relationship and that is troubling.”
“We’re too good for each other, is what you’re saying?” Covering my mouth to hide my smirk, I couldn’t hide the scoff escaping from my nose. “There’s got to be something wrong with us, and you’ve been sent because Vyachaslav can’t find it otherwise. I’m not going to air our dirty laundry to you.”
“But you do have any dirty laundry?” She leaned on her forearms on the back of her chair.
The silence stretched as my phone buzzed in my pocket to reverberate through the room.
“I guess that’ll have to be good enough for now. So, does Ophelia know about Kiri offering you sex?”
“She did?” My confusion almost choked me. I stood up as the hairs on the back of my neck bristled. In a flash, my mind raced through my 20 minute conversation with Kiri Makovich. “At no point did she bring that up.”
“Dude…she asked you if you know the nearest hotel to Red Square.”
I held my hands palm up in question, shaking my head slightly. My confusion only doubled at the look Malda sent me… like I was stupid and cute at the same time.
“Oh, my God. Sascha…you poor bastard.”
“What?”
Malda laughed at me, throwing her head back.
Frowning darkly, an ugliness filled my chest as my memories focused on her amusement. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I sighed heavily.
Malda dissolved into hysterical giggles.
I shrugged. “She said she was uncomfortable with cabs. I don’t get why that’s funny. Thousands of women are assaulted by—”
“No, no and no, Sascha…” Shaking her head viciously, Malda gripped the back of the chair to suck in a whistle of a breath. “If you gave her directions, she would’ve asked you to walk her there, then help her find a room— then try to jump you. Are you that oblivious? You said it yourself… they’re sluts. If Kiri Makovich thought for one second that screwing you would get her out of whatever Aleksander has planned, she’d try to seduce you in a heartbeat. And she’s fucking rich too, she has a car of her own, a driver and her own security. There’d be no reason to take a cab, she more than likely had a car idling somewhere for her.”