Page 44 of The Lies Between Lovers

Very few things could get Vera from zero to sixty in a snap, but that was mostly certainly one of them.

Giving the quiet Alexi a look, she then asked Igor, “So, why are you here then? Besides the fact you apparently knew when my flight was coming in, I mean.”

“Isn’t that obvious?” Alexi asked, unbothered by the shut up that hissed from Igor. “He’s here to pick you up.”

“I was planning on getting a cab, actually,” Vera said.

Igor shrugged. “Again, I just do—”

“What you’re told, right.”

Vera sighed, and bent down to grab the mini duffel she’d used as a carry-on and the rolling luggage at her other side. “I need a drive to Dubna, anyway. I assume that’s where you’re taking me?”

“Vera?” Alexi asked.

“I told my father I would call him tomorrow after I slept,” Vera explained to Alexi, “and I plan to do just that. He knows I’m okay, and that I have something to handle here.”

And that he needed to let her do that.

It was all Vera explained to her father because she wasn’t even sure if it was safe to tell him anything more. Demyan didn’t particularly like it, but she also hadn’t thought for a second that he would, either.

That didn’t change her situation.

“And when he calls me tonight for an update about your flight and arrival?” Alexi asked.

“You can tell him what I said.”

Because so would she.

A tense conversation in muttered, fast Russian passed between the men that Vera wasn’t able to follow well enough to understand before Igor ended it with something she could hear clearly. An order. “And you are not to take back any information you learned tonight about the business and issues here to a man in New York. He will kill you.”

Alexi gave a jerky nod, and then proceeded to spin on his heel and saunter off for the exit.

“What just happened?” Vera asked.

“I pulled rank,” Igor replied dryly.

“Thanks for explaining nothing, I guess.”

“Aren’t you going to ask me what I’m doing here? You seemed more surprised to see your father’s little spy than me.”

Vera’s brow furrowed. “Because Vaslav is angry that I left the country?”

That’s the only reason she could think of to explain why he was there. If they had a bead on her, like Igor said, then Vaslav would have known she was gone and coming back. Why else would he send a man to meet her at the airport?

“No,” Igor replied. “You had a ... uh, there was an incident with your neighbor this evening.”

Her back straightened. Mr. Anatoly?

“What? Please don’t tell me Vaslav did some—”

“While I wouldn’t put it past him, no.”

The fact that he offered her no other information irritated Vera like nothing else.

She was still trying to catch up. “I don’t understand. What happened?”

“Listen,” Igor said, tipping his head to the side and offering his palms out like he was asking for mercy, “if you want answers and a better explanation, I can take you to the man who will give those things to you. Otherwise, we’re just wasting time going in circles, Vera. I do what I’m told, and I was told to be here to bring you there—”