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He slid closer and pulled me against his side with one arm, flicking through the messages quickly. When he was done, he exhaled and tossed my phone onto the chair. “Do you have regrets?”
“No.” I traced his abs through his shirt, flipping through the catalogue of his tattoos in my head, challenging myself to remember where they were, what they meant — of the few he’d tell me anyway. They usually represented some form of death or criminal skill. After a while he got annoyed offering the same explanation over and over, so I quit asking.
“What’s the next step?”
“A little birdie is going to fly to the FBI and hand over some pretty incriminating evidence.Actualevidence, not the shit I fabricated to cover our asses during the kidnapping. I basically gift wrapped them a fucking case.”
“A bird?” He arched an eyebrow at me. “What bird?”
“Just a bird,” I repeated, laying my head against his chest again. I didn’t want to rat Bennett out considering how much of a fan Sasha was of the eccentric lawyer. He knew Bennett helped get the rumors started, but that was all I wanted to mention, for Sasha’s sake. My, how the times had changed. He used to not tell me things for fear of blowback and now I was the one shielding him from my nefarious deeds.
“And then what?” he asked.
“And then... we wait.”
“Wait for what?”
“For the FBI to make their move. I can’t do anything else until they do their part.”
“How do you know they’ll do anything?”
“They have to. White-collar crimes are their responsibility. And he’s legit guilty. I mean, I always figured he was, but I found actual proof of it as soon as I got into his phone. I’m sure they’ll find a hell of a lot more once they start digging.”
“What about the money? You never told me what you did with it.”
I shrugged, tracing the outline of his muscles beneath his shirt. “He won’t be able to find it, that’s for sure. It’s already been moved from where Mom deposited it, so she can’t get to it either. It’ll sit in the new account for a while.”
He ran his fingers through the top of my hair. “Ok. So we wait. However long that is.”
“Yeah. I should probably go get ready.” As much as I didn’t want to get up, I stretched up and kissed him quickly before springing to my feet.
“You’re working today?” He almost sounded pouty, but by the time I looked at him, he only had a mildly annoyed expression.
“Yeah. Feodor called a last minute meeting to go over some things for his newest idea. Ilya’s picking me up in twenty.”
He nodded, pulling his phone out and answering a text. His brow furrowed as he glared at the screen and whatever new message came through.
Weird, but whatever.
I got ready and was headed for the door when Sasha pulled me to a stop, kissing me with a sudden sense of urgency. The kiss itself was hot, but the feeling that accompanied it was strange. Normally, he didn’t have so much concern when either one of us left. We weren’t the sort of couple who had to tell each other three things they loved about the other or kiss for a specific amount of time to make it “meaningful” — usually because we couldn’t, because of Sergei’s stupid rule.
“Are you ok?” I asked, tilting my head to the side and searching his face for the real answer instead of whatever came out of his mouth.
“Of course.” Yeah, I didn’t believe that for one second, but his expression didn’t give me any hints to the contrary.
“Ok… Well, I’ll text you when we’re headed back. Maybe we can go out to eat if you’re done training or whatever?”
“Sounds good.”
I had the distinct feeling he didn’t want me to leave, but I had to. Maybe that’s all it was. Normallyhewas the one going to work, leaving me behind. Except today, his schedule was pretty much wide open and I was suddenly unavailable.
Slipping out of his arms, I stepped through the door and pulled it closed behind me. I lingered in the hallway for a minute before finally making my way downstairs.
Ilya was waiting at the curb when I wandered into the parking garage.
“Such service,” I said, sliding into the passenger seat.
“I aim to please,” he replied with a laugh, pulling out of the structure and turning toward the Adler. “I’m surprised you called me, actually. I figured you’d have Sasha take you.”
