Page 14 of The Lies Between Lovers

Vera’s gaze skipped behind him once more, and that time, he looked in the same direction to see what, or who, kept gaining her attention. He suspected he knew exactly who—Feliks.

Except the only person he found standing in front of the old marble bench beneath the statue of a weeping angel was Igor.

A silent question passed between the men, and all it took was a raise of Vaslav’s eyebrow to get the answer he was looking for.

“He headed up the hill, boss,” Igor explained, not bothering to draw attention to the news by turning in the direction that he spoke of in regards to Feliks’ sudden disappearance. “Didn’t even wait for her to get up from the ground before he made a beeline for the grave.”

I bet, he said to himself, glowering at the remaining people still lingering around the top of the grassy knoll. Only one or two still watched the scene down below, and none of those people were men he’d have to punish for doing so. He also didn’t see where Feliks stood there, either.

Lucky prick.

Grinding his molars to relieve some of the tension in the rest of his body—not that it ever worked except to give him tooth aches late at night—Vaslav turned back to face Vera.

“You came to a funeral with Feliks Abramov?” he asked.

It was the tilt of her head that gave away her confusion. “He’s my boss ... sort of. And I already said that I didn’t know what we were doing today?”

He nodded once. “Right, don’t do that again.”

Vera’s eyes widened. “Excuse you?”

“I understand that your involvement with the ballet house makes it difficult for you to keep a distance from that man, but that is what you’re going to do from now on. Yes?”

“First of all—”

He chuckled dryly, stopping Vera from finishing her indignant reply. “It’s much easier to just tell me yes, kisska. Then, I don’t have to show you why yes is the only option, hmm?”

“I can spend my time with whoever I want,” she snapped. “And I was quitting my job today, thank you very much. Or trying to ... before I fell, and made myself look like a total idiot.”

That, he did find interesting.

Vaslav also didn’t have the time or ability to stand there and have an entire discussion with her to get all the details about why she planned to quit her position. There was still a man who needed to be buried, after all. Not to mention, another that was damn close to getting thrown into the grave as well.

“You’re not an idiot,” he told her.

Vera let out a huff.

“And,” Vaslav added, “you’re not walking all the way back to the church. Igor will get the car, and he can even drive you home.”

“Vas?”

At the same time Igor said his name, Vera muttered, “I just need a break. I’m sure I can walk back on my own.”

“You could, but you won’t.”

“Stop it, I’m fine.”

“Again, a matter of opinion,” he returned, bored. “We already know that everybody’s got one of those.”

“Haven’t I already drawn enough attention to myself?” she asked. “Nobody needs to wait for me to get on with ... well, whoever the hell died.”

“Nicolai Lebedev.”

Vera’s shoulders dropped. “What?”

“The man being buried today. We called him Nico, for short. He was the best man at my wedding, and my lawyer in later years.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”