My confusion augments when Dimitri shakes his head. “It wasn’t me.”
He sounds honest, but I’m done acting as if I have air for brains. “Then how do you know what happened? I didn’t tell anyone, and I doubt Estelle shares her friend’s stupidity with the customers at her work.”
Before he can answer me, I spot some truth in his eyes.
“You had someone following me?” Another flare darts through his eyes before the cut line of his jaw turns fascinating. “I told Estelle I wasn’t making things up. She thought I was going crazy, that I needed my head examined.” I laugh like I’m in desperate need of a psych workup. “But that wasn’t it at all. I was being followed… by you.”
Dimitri’s anger picks up right along with his clutch on my arm. “It wasn’t me.”
The way he speaks down to me doesn’t deter me in the slightest. “But it was someone you ordered to watch me. Why were you watching me?”
“I don’t know.”
My eye roll matches my maturity level. “You know why, you just don’t want to tell me.”
“I said I don’t know!” He pushes me back with enough strength to crack the rear shield of the van before he hightails it to his sleek ride. “Get your ass in the car before your promise of being away for a month won’t see your roommate sleeping in your bed.” He peers back at me for the quickest second. His eyes are deadly and black. “Not even reformed Goths like sleeping on their friend’s blood-sodden mattress.”
He’s hoping his underhanded threat will have my knees knocking together. That might have been the case if I hadn’t spotted the tiniest flicker of light beaming out of my apartment in his narrowed gaze. It isn’t the shimmer of a recently lit candle. It’s too bright and breath-stealing for that. It’s a beacon of hope that the man I sold my soul to isn’t as malevolent as he wants me to believe.
Besides Estelle and me, Dimitri is the only person who knows we’ve fallen behind on our bills. Braydon only visits during the day, and Estelle keeps his thoughts far from the fact our television’s standby light is never on or that our microwave’s clock has been on the blink for months on end.
Furthermore, despite his impressive bank balance, I doubt Braydon has access to a computer genius who can find a credit card transaction I fought tooth and nail to have reversed from my card in less than a second—my father didn’t say goodbye to me, so there’s no way I wanted to pay his bar tab—but Dimitri sure as hell does.
Are Smith’s skills impressive enough to have electricity reconnected to a property in under five minutes? If you had asked me that very question two hours ago, I would have said no. Now, I’m confident it was him. Dimitri’s phone’s screen wasn’t lit up when I joined him in the elevator to ride it to the lobby, but that doesn’t mean anything. He used it to communicate with Smith earlier tonight without touching a button. Who’s to say he didn’t do the same thing this time around?
My clue hunt ends when my name snaps out of Dimitri’s mouth in a thick, accented roar. He’s standing at the side of his vehicle, holding open the back passenger door for me. Although his expression is as impassive as it was when he held his gun to my head, something in his eyes has changed. He’s either shocked how quickly Smith works, or he’s hoping I missed his handiwork.
I’m leaning more toward the latter.
He’d hate for me to think I have more power than he deems necessary because even mobsters know there’s no greater strength than a woman determined to prove a man wrong.
Chapter Eighteen
Dimitri
The click-clack, click-clack of Roxanne’s inexpensive shoes tap along the marble floors in the foyer of my home when she shadows my walk into the quiet space. Her heels aren’t the only disturbance. Her hot breaths as she takes in empty room after empty room are just as meddling. They hit my neck as they did my face when she slid past me to enter the backseat of my Range Rover idling at the front of her apartment building.
I had hoped she wouldn’t notice the illumination of her living room since it was eight floors above. Regretfully, she’s as nosy as she is attractive. I should have instructed Smith to wait until we had left Erkinsvale before remotely connecting Roxanne’s electricity. Alas, I hadn’t anticipated a near-fatal to occur within seconds of exiting Roxanne’s apartment.
That woman should be dead. She’s a klutz who speaks without thinking and leaps in front of cars without a single consideration for her safety.
The hate that’s bred in me since I was born usually craves a bloodbath. If it had been anyone but Roxanne, my hand wouldn’t have darted out to clutch her arm. I would have watched the carnage, smirked, then moved on.
Things are starkly different this time around. I’m not seeking a cape, nor do I want the title of hero. I merely want my daughter back, and as much as this kills me to admit, I believe Roxanne can help me achieve that faster than planned.
She was right when she said our spark is undeniable. It was blistering when we went toe to toe in the elevator, and it didn’t dampen when I insulted her idea of style. It will make my ruse more authentic this time around, and if I keep her off my father’s radar, everyone will come out of this agreement in one piece—including Fien.
“Take off your shoes. Their clicking is driving me bonkers.”
I don’t give a shit about the noise Roxanne’s shoes make while we walk. I just need to notch up my asshole radar a few decibels until the sly grin she’s been wearing since we left her apartment is gone.
She isn’t here as my guest.
She’s here as my slave and will be treated so accordingly.
After tugging off her shoes in a manner that reveals she knows they’re worthless, Roxanne follows my trek up a long curving stairwell. I purchased this property the month Audrey was kidnapped. It wasn’t to be our family home but more a means to ensure our family would forever live in comfort.
This property is where I host my foreign dignitaries. The events here range from one-on-one meetings with the clients’ favorite prostitutes to all-in orgy fests. Tomorrow night’s festivities will be milder than previous guests’ level of kink, but it will be the perfect place to commence plans I’ve had in the works for months. My father will be in attendance along with hundreds of men we class as both competitors and allies. It’s ideal and has me hopeful I’ll see Fien in person sooner than I’m hoping.
“This time tomorrow, these rooms will be filled with important members of my association. You’re to treat them with respect and to be courteous at all times.”
When the sweet smell of Roxanne’s heated skin streams into my nose, I half the length of my strides. The fear her body coats itself in is so intoxicating, I’m tempted to throw her to the wolves just to see how engrossing it can be.
Regrettably, if I want my enemies to believe my ploy that I’m moving on, I need to be the jealous, neurotic prick I was when Audrey’s beauty caught the eye of an admirer.
I cheated on my wife, but if someone so much as looked at her in the wrong manner, they would have lost an eye at the very least.
“The event is black tie. Hors d’oeuvres will be served in the parlor at seven. Main festivities will commence at nine.”