Page 230 of The Devil's Fire

“She kept the letters?”

I nodded, and he shook his head a bit in amusement.

“Tell me what happened. How did she die?” Mr. Vailiev’s eyes went cold in a second, and I told him what I could remember, intentionally leaving some parts out. I wasn’t ready to talk about it yet.

Mr. Vasiliev’s expression only darkened with each word that came out of my mouth, his men mirroring his expression, and I had to try my best not to cry while talking.

“And you haven’t found those people yet?” He asked once I was done. I shook my head.

“Not to my knowledge.” I said. One of his men started to speak in Russian, and Mr. Vasiliev listened to him while looking at me, nodding his head.

“I see.” He simply said to him. “You really shouldn’t be here, Althaia.”

“I know, but I really wanted to see you and figure out why she wanted to meet you.” I said and looked at Nestor. “She didn’t tell you why she wanted to see Mr. Vasiliev?”

“Alexei. Call me Alexei.” I nodded at him and returned my gaze to Nestor.

“No, she didn’t tell why and only said she needed to speak to him.”

I let out a sigh at his answer. I guess that would forever remain a mystery.

“How did you know when the funeral was?”

“I didn’t. She gave me her information to get her an invitation here. Once I found what name she went by, I found out where you lived and the boutique you were running. I wanted to check up on her but found the house empty, and then I checked the boutique to find it burned down. From that day, I checked the cemetery every day, hoping to be wrong. That’s when I found you.” Nestor ran a hand down his face, looking distressed and sad about it.

“You should have told me.” Alexei glared at Nestor; the angry look was back on his face.

“You would have gotten involved, and you know we can’t. She’s not your business anymore.”

“She will always be my damn business!” Alexei roared out, making me jump in my seat. He started to speak rapidly in Russian, and Nestor only nodded at him. Whatever he said to him didn’t sound very good, and it kind of felt like Nestor was in trouble.

“Althaia, I have something I need to attend to, and you’re not safe here. I need you to go up to the twenty-fifth floor, to room 2509. You will be safe there.” Alexei said to me, making me furrow my brows at him in confusion.

“Why?” I asked. But one sharp look from him let me know not to question him.

I put my wig back on and got out the extra set of colored contacts I had brought with me in case anything went wrong with the ones I wore. Luckily, I had a small mirror with me in my clutch to check if everything was in place.

They walked me out to the elevator once I was ready.

“Thank you for telling me about my mother. I feel like I know her more now.” I gave a small smile.

“Take care of yourself and stay safe.” Alexei said, and I bid them goodbye and stepped into the elevator.

What a night this had turned into, and I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit to myself for being able to sneak away and pull this off. I felt like the Mafia.

“I’m the Mafia. We do it like a Mafia.” I started to sing quietly to myself.

I reached the twenty-fifth floor and walked down the hall, searching for the room number. It now occurred to me Alexei didn’t give me any key card to the room or even told me how to get in. Was I supposed to just knock, and someone would let me in?

“Hmph.” A sound came out of me just as I crashed into someone.

“Watch where you’re going.”

My eyes immediately went up to his as I recognized his voice, but quickly looked down once I saw who it was.

Fuck, Gio is here!

“Uh, sorry. Wrong floor.” I said quietly, but he didn’t bother to spare me a glance.

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