Page 31 of Ruthless Seduction

“It’s true,” she said, her voice soft. “I’m sorry, but you have to understand. I didn’t know you,anyof you. And it’s my job.”

Nickolay got off the bed and grabbed his boxers, pulling them on he continued to stare at Alice, trying to see the truth behind her lies.

He’d known something was going on. It was obvious in the way that she talked sometimes, as if she had to think before speaking.

“Oh my God,” he said, his mind racing through every interaction they’d ever had. I don’t know you at all. You’re a fuckingstranger..”

“No, I’m not. I…I’m still me, I just have a secret.”

“A secret? This isn’t some fact that you hid from me. This is about who you are. I didn’t even know your damn name.”

“My last name. And I couldn’t lie to you about everything. I couldn’t bring myself to do it, even though I was supposed to. The things that I told you about my family were true. You know what food I like and my favorite TV shows. You know who I am in ways that matter.”

“How the hell am I supposed to believe anything you say? I let you around my son,” he said, disgusted. “I fucking trusted you around Max.”

“I’d never do anything to hurt him.”

Her shame and sadness suddenly transformed to defensiveness. As if she had any right to feel that way.

“You don’t think that sending me to prison will hurt him? What is this, anyway? A warning that your co-workers are going to swoop in to put me in cuffs soon? What did you find out while you were slithering through Alek’s house like a treacherous snake?”

Alice got out of the bed too, bringing the sheet with her to keep her body covered. “This is me being honest with you, just like you said. I’m telling you the truth because I want you to know. I haven’t turned over any evidence to my boss, and I don’t plan to.”

His heart felt like a solid mass in his chest, and the pain of realizing just how serious this betrayal was hurt more than anything he’d ever experienced. A part of him longed to believe her words, but he couldn’t. She was the enemy. She tricked him into loving her.

“Get out,” he snapped, turning away from her to grab his clothes off the floor. “I can’t stand looking at you. Just get out of my house.”

“Nickolay,please.” Her voice broke, and it felt like a knife was being shoved between his ribs. “Don’t do this. I didn’t plan for this to happen between us, but once I realized how I felt about you, I knew that I couldn’t go through with the investigation.”

The temptation to take her into his arms was strong and infuriating. He couldn’t let himself do that, no matter what she said. She slept with him, keeping her secrets.

A small voice in the back of his head reminded him that he was keeping secrets too, big ones. Just because it turned out that she already knew about his involvement in the Bratva, it didn’t mean that he was innocent of deception either.

He ignored that voice.

He pulled his clothes on and turned back just as she pulled her own shirt over her head. She grabbed her shoes, but he was tired of waiting. He needed her out of his sight before he did something crazy, like believing she gave a damn about him.

“You’re done with this shit. Stay away from me and don’t even think about showing up at Alek’s again,” he said, putting as much threat as he could into his voice. Better that she fear him at this point.

Taking her arm, he pulled her out of the bedroom with her shoes still in hand. When they reached the front door, he finally glanced at her face. The sight of tear tracks on her cheeks was nearly his undoing. He clenched his jaw and glared at her.

Pulling open the door, gave her a shove, making her stumble over the threshold and out onto the porch. Before she got the chance to say another word, she slammed the door, turning the deadbolt.

He knew that he shouldn’t have let her go at all. She was a threat to the whole Bratva. But he couldn’t bring himself to retain her. The fact that he still cared about her so much just made him angrier.

This night turned into a disaster, and it killed him to know that his relationship had been a complete lie.

* * *

“The house is at the end of the block on the right,” Alek said. He was tense as he sat in the passenger seat, leaning forward to peer out the windshield. “The blue one.”

They were in a residential area on the east side of the city, just two blocks away from a bad neighborhood. That made sense. The man that lived in that house was one of the names given to them by the man in the basement three days ago. If he lived close to a neighborhood with a lot of crime and violence, that explained how he got into this vigilante shit.

It was no excuse though.

Pulling over in front of the house, Nickolay pulled his gun out of his ankle holster. There was no point in pretending that they weren’t wiping these men out. It was necessary to protect the Bratva.

Yet, you let Alice go.

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