Page 49 of Craving Dahlia

“I’m not playing a game?—”

“A lie, and we both know it.” His smile doesn’t falter. “But I can make you a better offer.”

“How do you know anything about me?” I glance past the bar again, but I don’t see any sign of Evelyn still, and my stomach clenches.

“I have my ways. I know you work as a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, that your father is a respected politician in Washington D.C., that you married Alek Yashkov very recently, and that you are carrying his child. Or so you say. And I know much, much more about Alek Yashkov himself. He’s not a man you want to be married to,devochka.”

My blood runs cold with every word, and my fingers start to tremble. “You need to leave,” I bite out, with as much conviction as I can muster. “I don’t want to hear any more.”

“I think you do.” The man doesn’t budge. “You see, I’m very well acquainted with Alek Yashkov. He…left, before we could finish the business we had with him. And I would like to speak to him again.”

“So go talk to him.” I swallow hard. “Since you know so much. You’d probably have better luck than me.”

The man chuckles darkly. “I doubt it very much,devochka.” He drums his fingers against the tabletop, looking at me with those icy eyes. “You bring Alek Yashkov back here, tomorrow night. Let’s say, eight p.m.. And then, as soon as you are here, go to the ladies’ room. Just outside, someone will have your payment for you. That’s all you need to do. I recommend leaving immediately, of course. Thepakhanwon’t be pleased that you’re working with us. But the money we will give you is enough to buy you a new life wherever you please.”

“I don’t want your money.” I twist my fingers together, trying to calm my racing heart. “Just go. I don’t want any part of this.”

“No?” The man cocks his head. “Not even five million dollars,devochka? In cash or wired to a bank of your choice, whichever you prefer.”

Five million dollars.It’s an insane amount of money. Enough to free me from Alek, from my father…enough to, like this man is saying, buy me a fresh start anywhere I please. But there’s no part of me that considers it, even for a moment.

I might hate Alek a lot of the time, but I’m not so naive that I don’t know that whatever this man wants with him, it’s something very, very bad. And I also know that whoever this man is, he’s not someone I want to get tangled up with.

“I already gave you my answer.” I force myself to look him straight in the eye, ignoring the twisting sensation in my stomach and the near-painful racing of my heart. “I said no.”

The man hesitates for only a moment, and then I see his gaze cut to one side. When I follow the direction that he’s looking, I see Evelyn starting to walk back towards our table, brushing off the man that tries to stop her and talk to her as she heads back towards me.

“Well.” The man stands up smoothly. “A shame, Dahlia. Things would be much better for you if you had chosen my offer.”

He turns before I can say anything, melting into the crowd a moment before Evelyn arrives back at the table. There’s a pinched line between her brows, and she looks thoroughly annoyed.

“Some men just don’t know how to take no for an answer.” She glances back in the direction of where she came, but the man who tried to stop her appears to be gone, too. “This one guy stopped me on the way to the bathroomandback, trying to flirt.”

“They really don’t know how,” I murmur, my heart still pounding in my chest. Evelyn frowns, reaching for her drink.

“You look pale. Are you feeling okay?”

I should tell her what happened.I know I should. I should tell Dimitri, too. But something holds me back.

I don’t owe Alek any loyalty. He’s been nothing but an ass to me from the moment he walked in that afternoon and found me sitting on the couch with Evelyn. But if there’s one thing I’ve figured out about him, it’s that he has secrets—and he doesn’t seem to want to share them with anyone. Not even his brother.

What just happened has something to do with those secrets. And even though rationally I know that I should go to Dimitri with this, my instincts scream that I should wait, and tell Alek. That I should let him decide what to do with this information.

“I think I’m just tired.” I run my finger along the rim of my glass. “We should probably go, actually. I know I wanted to stay…but I think maybe that was a little too ambitious.”

Evelyn looks at me for a long moment, and I wonder if she’s seeing through me. She’s my best friend—she knows me better than anyone else, and I’ve never tried to hide anything from her before.

“Okay,” she says finally, reaching for her phone. “I’ll text the driver.”

A few minutes later, we’re heading out into the spring evening, and despite the fact that it’s beginning to warm up, I shiver the moment we step outside.

The last thing I want is to go looking for Alek tonight when I get home.

But I need to tell him what happened.

17

ALEK

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