Alexei turned to face me and straightened my T-shirt.
“Tidying me up?”
“A little, though Saint has been seen here, so it is not implausible that I would bring you home too.”
It should’ve been funny, the genuine consideration Alexei was giving me. But I just wanted it over with so we could get Mateo’s family inside and safe.
The lift reached the ground floor. Alexei seemed to steel himself and pressed a hand to the base of my spine. “Just smile and be pretty, chaplain.”
“You don’t want me to talk?”
“Absolutely not.”
The doors opened before I could ask why, revealing a swanky lobby, complete with a chandelier and a sleek, black welcome desk.
An aged Mediterranean man stood behind it, frowning at a monitor screen. He looked up as the lift doors opened and his face morphed into a respectful smile.
Alexei smiled back, bland and disarming.
It was creepy as fuck.
“Come on.” He propelled me forward. “Remember, you are the brother I rely on to behave.”
We stepped out of the lift. Alexei was dressed in his usual dark, expensive clothes. He had a way of making jeans and a T-shirt look like he’d just stepped off a runway.
I was still wearing the sweats I’d slept in, my shitty boots, and Mateo’s crew neck. In the empty lobby, I stood out like a sore thumb, but the man I presumed to be Horacio didn’t seem to notice.
He said something to Alexei in a language that sounded like Spanish. Alexei replied and steered me to the desk, accepting a stack of envelopes while keeping a possessive hold around my waist, the picture of relaxation.
Wow. He’s good at this.It was kind of terrifying, but I played my part, leaning into him like we were casual, affectionate lovers.
The Spanish exchange ended. Alexei draped an arm over my shoulder and we strolled back to the lift.
Inside, I expected him to let me go.
He didn’t, his gaze flitting to the cameras above us.
“You think the doorman is paying that much attention?”
“No. But someone else might, and it is far better that anyone watching thinks you are more mine than Mateo’s, don’t you think?”
My stomach dropped. “This is aboutme?”
“Calm yourself.” Alexei held me in place. “It is about all of us. Mateo will not withstand it if anything happened to you again, and that is a problem for everyone.”
The lift began to move while my brain galloped at a thousand miles an hour to keep up. “Is that why you brought me here? To keep me and her in one place?”
I felt Alexei shake his head.
Swallowed a cringe as he tucked my unruly hair behind my ears. Honestly, I didn’t mind people touching me, but knowing it was fake—and that hehatedit—prickled my skin in all the wrong ways.
“Keeping you together has its advantages, but it was not at the forefront of my mind when I came for you. Mateo will not cope well with your absence.”
“Then why kidnap me?”
“Hyperbole, chaplain?”
He was the only brother I had who used words like that, understood them,andkept a straight face. Probably because he was right. “Valid. I still want to hear your reasoning.”