Page 90 of The Lies Between Lovers

“But I asked you.”

Mira smiled softly, her gaze drifting to a spot somewhere between him and her on the hardwood floor. “I’d think if a woman said yes even knowing a man was hiding something from her—regardless of what it was—then she’s determined whatever he’s hiding doesn’t really matter. And if it is something serious, then she’d have to care about him more than she did about whatever it is he’s keeping from her.”

“Love?” he asked. “Would she have to love him?”

“If not, then something awfully close to it. But I don’t know what that could be.”

Yeah.

Him either.

However, Vaslav intended on figuring it out.

25.

The den of Vaslav’s home hadn’t been designed with business in mind, but it was often the place where he found himself holding meetings or whatever else when needed because the idea of letting others deeper into the house wasn’t one he particularly enjoyed. Even when Irina had once held parties monthly, and the downstairs filled with important faces that he shouldn’t have ignored, he would retreat to the upper levels where he could easily hide away from everyone else.

He figured Igor must have been aware of his discomfort at having others in his spaces because the man rarely opted to sit whenever he spent significant time in the den. That morning was no exception, and the bald, bull of a man barely even glanced at the heaps in the far corner where they waited practically motionless near the crackling fireplace. Gone was the leather jacket Igor had been using for most of the summer, instead replaced by a thicker black blazer that likely kept the man warmer in the lower evening temperatures.

“Ah, Yosef managed his job, then?” Igor asked his boss.

Vaslav continued watching the news playing on the large flat screen, but still nodded his confirmation of Igor’s observance. “He did.”

“Did he stay to talk?”

“Barely looked me in the eye as he hauled them in,” Vaslav returned. “Not that they gave him any trouble. He really shouldn’t use chloroform. I’m slightly more than a little convinced he overdid it.” Or that could just be my conscience, he thought.

Both men glanced at the huddled heaps, then.

Neither acknowledged them.

“But you like it that way,” Igor muttered. “You want every man in this country terrified of what you might do if they did look at you.”

Vas didn’t bother to respond to that—what would be the point? It was true.

Better for people to think he was crazy and behave accordingly, than for Vaslav to have to prove it to them. No one liked when that happened. Nothing good came from it.

“It went fine,” Vaslav settled on saying.

And the man assigned to a job Igor said he was perfect for also didn’t wait long enough for a thank you before he left, either. Vaslav wouldn’t complain.

One wouldn’t know by the dim lighting in the room from every shade being pulled that it wasn’t even ten in the morning. Even the fireplace gave the impression it was later in the day because he rarely put the one in the den to use if it wasn’t nearing sundown. He hadn’t bothered to turn the lights on when he arrived at the ass crack of dawn to ensure Yosef had access to the den through an entrance that wouldn’t notify the neighbors.

Igor had been a little busy elsewhere.

“Kiril called,” Igor said, then.

That interested Vaslav.

“Oh?” He even glanced away from the news broadcast that had been far more interesting than anything else in his den that morning. Including the unfortunate—still living—lumps in the corner. “And?”

Igor rolled his eyes, but it didn’t hide the grin that formed. “You know,” he said, wagging a finger Vaslav’s way where he sat on one of two matching leather recliners facing the television mounted on the wall. “I almost wanted to think you were interested because I mentioned Kiril—it might mean you like the kid, but then I remember it’s only because you know exactly where he is.”

“Who he is with,” Vaslav corrected.

Igor’s brow jumped higher. “Yeah. They signed her walking papers this morning, and good news, she’s home and sleeping as of a half hour ago.”

The doctor kept Vera another day—just to be safe. Or that’s what the man told her, and Vaslav had no plans on explaining what hand he might have played in that overall decision after a chat with the good doctor led to a payment Vaslav promised to make in the near future. Something else Igor would have to deal with in the coming days.