My heart hammers against my ribs. I should go down there. If I'm supposed to be his fiancée, if that's the role I'm playing in this twisted production, then I should be at his side. That's what a real fiancée would do, isn't it? Stand beside her man when he faces his demons?
Except Aleksandr isn't my man. He's my captor. My would-be killer. The man who took everything from me and then dared to make me fall for him when he couldn't remember who he was.
Then someone shouts. The yell cuts through the noise like a knife, sharp and angry. I move to the door and press my ear against it, as if that will help me hear what's being said.
More shouting. Accusations, maybe. Or challenges. I can't tell from up here, but the energy has shifted. It's not just loud anymore. It's dangerous.
My hand finds the doorknob. I should go down there. Aleksandr expects me to. Danil told me to. But I don't turn it. I don't open the door and walk into whatever's happening down there. Because once I do, once I step into that room and stand beside Aleksandr as his woman, there's no going back. I'll be marked. Targeted. Every enemy he has will see me as a weapon to use against him.
The voices reach a crescendo. Someone's yelling, their words fast and furious. Others join in, a chorus of anger and confusion. Furniture scrapes against the floor. Something crashes.
I grab the gun from the nightstand, my hands shaking. The metal is cold and heavy and terrifying.
Then a single gunshot cracks through the air.
36
ALEKSANDR
Istand at the window of my office while Danil pours vodka behind me. The door is locked. Just the two of us.
"You said you remembered," Danil says, handing me a glass. "Everything?"
"Everything." I take a drink. "It was Yuri."
The glass in Danil's hand stops halfway to his mouth. "What?"
"Yuri set me up. Tried to kill me." I turn to face him. "He told me there was a sensitive witness. Someone who'd seen who was stealing from our operations but would only talk to me directly, with Yuri present."
Danil sets his glass down hard. Vodka sloshes over the rim. "Where?"
"Montana. Middle of nowhere. He said the witness was in hiding, paranoid." I drain my glass and pour another. "I should have known better."
"So you went."
"We drove. Two days. Yuri was nervous the whole time, but I thought it was just his usual anxiety." I lean against the desk. "We stopped to stretch our legs. Snow everywhere, nothing but trees and mountains. That's when he pulled a gun. Some cheap piece of shit he probably bought off the street."
I touch the scar on my shoulder. "First shot hit here. Spun me around. I was reaching for my weapon when the second one grazed my head."
Danil's jaw clenches. "That fucking coward."
"Everything went black. When I woke up, I was in Lena's cabin with no memory of who I was." I meet his eyes. "Yuri thought I was dead. Left me there to freeze or bleed out."
"He was always weak," Danil growls. "Couldn't even kill properly."
"No. But someone convinced him to try. Someone paid him enough or scared him enough that he was willing to betray me."
Danil is quiet for a long moment. When he speaks, his voice is rough. "Yuri's dead."
"What?"
"Car accident. Two weeks after you disappeared. Single vehicle, went off a bridge during a storm." He takes a long drink. "We found evidence in his apartment afterward. Burner phones. Cash hidden in the walls. Bank statements showing deposits we couldn't trace."
"Someone paid him to kill me."
"Yes. But we didn't know you'd been with him that day. Didn't know he'd actually tried." The guilt in Danil's voice is palpable."If we'd known, we would have torn this city apart looking for you."
"You couldn't have known. Yuri was careful." I move to the window again. "The question now is who paid him."