Page 71 of Call Sign: King
At least Alexi didn’t try to deny how fucked up that whole night had been.
Ignoring Ryder’s statement, he continued on with the history lesson. “The next two years I didn’t see him… didn’t hear from him. I got updates occasionally as he moved from the farm up in Siberia to some clinic in the south of France. He even spent a few months in Cuba undergoing some radical type of burn treatment there. Then last year, he showed up out of the blue — waiting to ambush me at my place in the city. That’s when it became clear he’d started obsessing on finding you and making you pay.
“Up until that point, I’d been paying all of his medical bills on the down low, and he’d stayed out of the day-to-day family business. Since then, he’s been spending money like it’s water, not only to put feelers out across the globe looking for you and hiring his own small army that would be loyal to him, but he also finished his last few reconstructive surgeries with specialists in Switzerland.”
“So, you’ve known this showdown was coming…”
“Did I know he’d scour the earth looking for you? Sure. Did I know you’d be ballsy enough to take a job protecting an international movie star and then be stupid enough to get your photo taken with her, no… I didn’t see that coming.”
Ryder deserved the recrimination he heard in Alexi’s voice. He already knew the mistake he’d made by being seen with his wife in public. Thankfully, he wasn’t stupid enough to tell Alexi that Khloe was more than just a job to him.
That she was his life.
“So where do we stand?” Ryder finally asked, still taking solace that he didn’t have a bullet through his brain yet.
An angry scowl clouded Alexi’s face and Ryder prepared himself for Alexi’s fury.
“He had Sasha murdered.”
Whoa. “When?”
“Just over a year ago. He was waiting for me at my place. Sasha was there. She’d moved in with me. We were engaged. We were planning on getting married this summer.”
Ryder stayed silent until Alexi continued.
“I’d been so careful — never breathing a word about Vlad surviving — not to Sasha. Not to my men. The only people who knew other than the doctors were Yurdin and my Aunt Yana.
“If he’d just been cool everything would have been okay, but that night, Sasha figured out who he was. We had a huge fight because I’d kept it all a secret and not trusted her with the truth.
“Then she was killed the very next morning by a hit and run driver less than two blocks from our place while walking to the bakery. Vlad denied he was involved, of course, but I know. Accidents like that don’t just happen.”
“I’m sorry for your loss. I know you cared about her,” Ryder said, genuinely understanding love better now than he ever had in his undercover Nicolai days.
“I loved her,” Alexi spit out angrily. “I lied to her over and over, thinking it would keep her safe, and in the end, he squashed her like she was a meaningless bug under his shoe. And now he’s… “
Alexi’s voice trailed off as he took his eyes off Ryder, glancing away in the distance, lost in thought.
Finally returning his attention to Ryder, he could see the look in his old friend’s eyes softening. “It’s not just Khloe Monroe he plans on torturing.”
“He’ll have to catch me to torture me,” Ryder said, assuming Alexi was referring to him, although to be fair, taking Khloe away like he had was proving to be a very effective form of torture for Ryder.
“Not you, asshole. I’m talking about Irena.”
Vladimir’s wife? “Didn’t she keep his secrets?” Ryder asked, thinking back to the list of those who’d even known Vlad had survived.
“She only found out he was alive a few hours ago.”
Ryder was lost.
“Then why torture her? I’d think he’d be happy to get back to her.”
Alexi sat in silence.
“What am I missing?” Ryder prodded again.
In the absence of answers, Ryder thought through all he’d learned and comparing it to all he knew about his enemy.
“She fell in love with someone else when she thought Vlad was dead.”
