Page 34 of Vienna Bargain

She didn’t respond.

“Did you hear me?” he asked.

“Yes.”

Some monstrous part of him made him say, “Yes, what?”

He watched her hands curl into fists before she said, “Yes, Sir,” her tone as cold and smooth as a dagger’s blade.

He was out of the room and at the base of the stairs when she spoke again. He’d left the door open, because, despite everything, he didn’t want her to feel trapped in a room she’d likened to a concrete coffin.

“You asked me if I thought telling you to stop would work,” Alena said softly.

Alexander gripped the handrail of the stairs, all his muscles tensed to stop himself from turning around.

Her words were low, tone flat and dead, completely unlike her normal voice. “Was there anything I could have said that would have made you stop?”

Alexander walked up the stairs, her question unanswered.

Chapter 8

“Mr. Wagner.” Jakob extended a phone towards him. “Mr. Schroeder would like to speak with you.”

“Please advise him that I will speak with him at my earliest convenience.” Alexander had been ignoring the phone all day, including multiple calls from Zakaria and one from Absolon, his curator. He considered answering Absolon’s call just to yell at the man for calling him rather than emailing.

Instead of answering any of the calls, he’d been sitting at this desk pretending to work, and trying not to think about Alena down in his playroom. His gaze had drifted to the bookshelf more times than he could count. He’d checked on her this morning. Brought her breakfast. She’d once more been regally amused, despite the collar locked around her neck.

If she’d been or seemed at all vulnerable he would have brought her upstairs, given her the guest room down the hall from the master suite. Last night he’d hardly slept, and had gotten out of bed several times, making it as far as his office, his hand on the book that would reveal the hidden entrance.

“Mr. Schroeder ordered me to tell you that someone is looking for her, and you need to talk to him right now.” Jakob kept his expression neutral as he walked forward and set a phone down on the desk.

Alexander looked at it, then at the Jakob. Damn it.

He jerked his head towards his office door and Jakob nodded once, then exited, the door closing behind him with a soft click.

Alexander picked up the cellphone.

“Zakaria.”

“You can’t avoid me.”

“I dislike having the guards you forced on me acting as your spies.”

“Your privacy is not as important as your safety.”

“Safety,” Alexander said slowly.

“Someone is looking for her.”

“How do you know?”

“There have been several attempts to extract information about her from my team. One was a call, supposedly from an airline, asking about rebooking her ticket. When questioned, they claimed she’d given my company’s contact information with her passenger details.”

“Did she?”

“No. And your offices—both at Wagner Global and your personal team, received similar calls. There were also several Trojan horse viruses sent to non-security employees—people who might have been stupid enough to open the attachment—at both Wagner Global and RTW.”

“You’re sure they’re connected to her.”

---