Page 121 of Queen’s Gambit

“If you mean murder attempt, then sure. If you are trying to insinuate that I would take my life, then you’ve lost your mind,” I growled.

Vlad stood and glared at Alina. She swallowed hard and backed away. This was the eighth different incident, and I wasn’t about to see if I had nine lives.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything by that.”

Like hell, you didn’t.

She scurried off as we all watched at her.

“May I pick you up,” Vlad asked.

I shook my head and pointed to the top of the stairs.

“Go see what you can find first,” I whispered, and Vlad turned and jogged up to the landing. Then I looked at my mom. “Can we stay at your retreat for a bit?”

“Yes, of course you can. I’ll speak to your father about you and Lilya moving back home. This is insane.”

I grabbed her arm.

“No. I know what he’ll say. Besides, I’m pretty sure they are trying to make me look unstable,” I said.

My mother’s face twisted with fury before she looked up to where Vlad was kneeling. He pulled out a knife and cut something that I couldn’t see.

“Fishing line,” he said when he rejoined us at the bottom. “Clear, you never would’ve seen it. Deadly if you hadn’t been so agile.”

I certainly didn’t feel agile. Vlad looked at the doorway where Alina had disappeared. I could still feel her evil eyes on me from wherever she was hiding.

“You can’t stay here.”

“I know,” I growled.

It was a good thing Alina left the room, or I might’ve ordered Vlad to do whatever he wanted.

“I have an idea,” I said, but I didn’t offer any more information. “Let’s just get out of here. My phone flew under that table.”

Vlad grabbed it from where I pointed before picking me up, and my mom grabbed Lilya.

As soon as I was in the car, I messaged Eddie. I was done. I didn’t care that it would be better if he made a few more moves to become the Don of Dons and neutralize Christov. It was time to go.

Edmundo

My phone rang, interrupting the meeting. That in itself wasn’t unusual, but then I saw Ana’s name. She never called this time of day.

“I’m sorry, gentleman. There’s an emergency. I need to take this,” I said, dismissing everyone from my office.

When the door closed behind the last person, I answered.

“Ana, what’s wrong?”

“Eddie…I have to leave right now, or a soon as you can get here with the jet. I know you said you need a few more days, but….” Ana stopped, her voice a little frantic, and it sounded like she was holding back tears.

“Stop, Ana, it’s okay. I’ll come get you.” The fear I’d managed to keep on the back burner for the last few years quickly ignited. “What happened?”

“I thought Christov was crazy, but Eddie…Alina is truly insane. Maybe they share the same screwed-up gene, but she is….”

“Ana, you’re scaring me, and you haven’t told me what happened,” I said as I sent off an email to my pilot. I needed to know how soon he could have the jet ready to fly to our usual spot in Russia.

“Eddie, I thought she was just trying to mess with me. It was random at first, and it was my word against hers. Eight months ago, she poisoned me. There was no proof, but I knew it was her. I told Christov, and he said he’d talk to her. Things have been quiet since then, but today, she rigged a trap for me to fall down the stairs. If I hadn’t grabbed the railing part way down, I’d have more than a twisted ankle.”