I settled into the back seat and watched the city move past the window, people spilling out of offices and cafes and folding themselves into the rush. I may have created suspicion where there was none. Maybe Dmitri went to work, an actual emergency, the kind that didn’t require his bodyguard.
“Is there somewhere else you’d like to go, ma’am?” Antonasked, and a thought arrived fully formed, the way bad ideas usually do.
“What if we stopped by Dmitri’s office?”
“You wish to visit Mr. Konstantinov?”
“Yes.” I bit my lip and nodded. “Just briefly.”
“Alright.” He returned his attention to the road, asking nothing further.
A quiet unease settled in my stomach as the city scrolled past. This was possibly a terrible idea. Walking unannounced into Dmitri’s office was the move that either landed perfectly or didn’t land at all. I leaned back against the seat and decided I was willing to find out which one.
I was also, if I was being truthful with myself, curious what his face would do when he saw me showing up in his office.
Chapter Twenty-four
Inna Grace
“Let’s go home,” I toldAnton as I slid into the car. He pulled the car out of DK Holdings while I leaned back against the seat, processing the full result of my brilliant investigative mission.
Dmitri hasn’t been coming to work for three days.
That was it. After the receptionist informed me that the boss had been absent, I performed a convincing act of a woman who already knew this and needed to retrieve something from his office. I went to Dmitri’s office, sat in his chair, and stayed there for about five minutes before leaving.
Akim was nowhere either, though that proved little. The man moved at Dmitri’s hip with the fidelity of a well-dressed shadow. Wherever Dmitri was, Akim was probably standing behind him, looking like a decorative danger.
I shifted in the seat and watched the city through the window as the evening deepened around it. What would I do with the answer, exactly? Find out where Dmitri spent his nights, and then what? March in? I was better off at the mansion with Coleand Grandma, playing the role of a fake wife.
Speaking of Grandma, I promised her to be home before dinner. I made the promise with every intention of keeping it because her good opinion was one of the few things I wanted to maintain. Instead, I spent the afternoon chasing a man who wasn’t where I expected to find him. And now I would arrive late.
The car slowed to a stop, making me lean forward to see what made us stop. A river of red brake lights stretched down the road ahead, vehicles packed tight and moving nowhere.
I dropped back against the seat and pressed my forehead to the window. I would need a story for Grandma, something better than traffic. I reached into my bag for my phone to call her. It was better to inform her I would be late than to keep her waiting.
My fingers moved through my bag, pushing past the things in it. There was nothing. I checked the usual pocket, turned the bag over on the seat beside me, and stared at its contents spread across the leather. No phone.
I checked the seat and the floor, then turned back to the bag in case it had reappeared.
A memory of me seated in Dmitri’s office, with the phone face-up on his desk, arrived. I remembered turning the chair in slow circles and enjoying the skyline view for a self-indulgent minute before standing up and walking out. I left the phone on his office table.
“Oh, no.”
If Dmitri went to his office and found my phone on his desk, my harmless curiosity would look deliberate. It was, but that was private information, and private information was only useful when it stayed private.
“I think I left my phone,” I said to Anton, leaning forward.
His eyes found mine in the rearview mirror. “Where did you leave it?”
“Dmitri’s office.” I pressed my fingers to my forehead. “Can we go back?”
He studied the unmoving procession of vehicles ahead before agreeing. “Yes, but we need the next roundabout first.”
“How long?”
“In less than an hour, if the traffic improves?”
Less than an hour? Wonderful. I dropped back into the seat and closed my eyes. The universe was not content to let me decide without immediate consequences.