Page 28 of The Bratva’s Monster

I walk out of the room, quickening my steps until I get to the elevator. Once I’m there in the silence of the moving metal walls around me, I start to rehearse the things I’m going to say to Alex when I next see him. I’m sure he noticed when I left the party. And if he didn’t, I’m certain someone else did. With my luck, the Bratva rumor mill is buzzing with the news that Gedeon’s best friend hovered at his widow’s side all night before leaving with her.

It’s shameful. The guilt sits in the center of my chest like a stone.

It’s not until I get to my car that my phone rings. Of course it’s Alex. Here we go.

“Good morning,” I say as I pull out of my parking space.

“Good morning, indeed,” he answers. “Where did you go last night?”

“I just left a little early,” I say to him. “Got a headache.”

“Really? That’s interesting. Apparently, Liz had to leave early too. Around the same time as you, in fact. It’s a little odd because she didn’t bother to say her goodbyes to anyone.”

“Maybe she didn’t want to.”

“Or maybe she found someone to go home with.” There’s nothing threatening in Alex’s tone, but I can tell that he’s fishing. I don’t know what he expects me to say, but I’m pretty sure he’s looking for a confession to my dirty deeds last night. I’m not ready to kiss and tell just yet.

“Maybe,” is all I say to him.

“You know, I was thinking all night about how you two were getting along,” he says. “I can’t say it’s a bad look in terms of your brothers, but I will say that it’s a good step toward gaining her trust. You are thinking about that still, right?”

“Of course,” I say, and my mind starts going over the things I’d planned to tell him about last night. “We had some good conversation. I think she might be opening up to me.”

“Hmm. What did you talk about all night?”

“A lot of things. I was mostly digging for information, though.”

“Such as?”

Such as the fact that she doesn’t drink and that she loves it when I bite her neck while fucking her from the back. “Nothing earth shattering. Not yet, anyway.”

“You planning on seeing her again?”

No. Absolutely not. If anything like what happened last night happens again, I’ll lose my shit. “Thinking about it. I might stop over and check in with her.”

“See if you can find something out about who Gedeon was keeping company with in the weeks before we were ambushed,” he says.

I immediately think of the video that Kostya showed us both all those months ago. Gedeon meeting up with Stefan in a dimly lit corner of the mall. And this before he went off to Russia and we took care of Slavik. I often wonder what he might’ve done had he lived. Once Stefan took over, would he have initiated some plan to take Alex by surprise and dismantle us from the inside?

“There has to be more than just Stefan,” Alex says. “Stefan was in Russia for the majority of the shit that happened here. Somebody had to be on the ground here for Liz to feed information to in the meantime.”

“She’ll probably call me within the next day or so,” I tell Alex. “I mean, I’m pretty sure I hit it off with her last night. She’s probably going to be looking to see me again.”

“Don’t wait,” he says. “You call her. Maybe ask her out for coffee or something. But don’t make her think that you’re looking to court her. It’ll look too suspicious.”

Now you tell me. “Right. Play the role of concerned best friend. Got it.”

“Good. Keep me updated.”

I hang up and drive the rest of the way home in silence. Don’t court her, he said. Well, I guess fucking is not technically courting. And for all I know, she won’t want to sleep with me again. I was rough on her. Rougher than I’ve been in bed with a woman in a long time. Although, there was every indication that she was enjoying every minute of it.

Whatever. I need to get with the program. She is just a means to an end. When I find the proof that she’s in on it, too, then I’ll end her just as quickly as any other mark.

Last night didn’t mean anything. Liz is nothing to me. And that’s how it’s going to remain.

12

LIZ