Page 175 of Volatile Obsessions

“Tick, tock, baby.” She chuckled. “Thirty seconds.”

“I’m going to make sure you—”

“Fifteen.”

She couldn’t be serious. There’s no way. “I regret every single moment we—”

“Five, four, three—”

“Yes, okay, yes!” I interjected, defeated, clamping my eyes shut. “You’ll fucking see me there!”

“Stand down,” she instructed, her voice further away from the phone.

The line scratched out for a split-second before a man’s voice, fuzzy and distant, sounded off.

“Secured?” he asked.

“He’ll be there,” Liza agreed.

Walkie talkies… She wasn’t lying.

Had I not agreed, I’d be…

“You made the right choice, Roman, but I think you already figured that out. Am I right?” Amused, satisfied, her voice was like that of a toxin.

Infecting me.

Debasing me with lunacy.

I loathed her all the more. “I’m done talking, Liza. Just tell me how to get to you.”

“Just get to the airport. I’m not having anyone personally escort you there because I trust you value your life. Don’t think I won’t have eyes on you, though,” she explained surely. “When you get to Miami International, you’ll find a man entrusted with a sign that says Ryzhkov. Go with him.”

That name.

I remembered it instantly from that night at the gala with Vic.

“How the hell do you know Ryzhkov?” I questioned.

Liza giggled wickedly. “I thought you were done talking?”

“Tell me how you know him!” I demanded furiously.

“Goodbye, Roman. I’ll see you soon, my love.”

Click.

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