Page 121 of A Dangerous Proposal

“What’s going on with Mikhail? Why is he upset with you over me? Are you in trouble?” Her gaze was unwavering, and he fought the urge to smile at her no-nonsense tone.

Alex held up three fingers. “Nothing for you to worry about.” He bent one finger down. “Same answer.” The second finger lowered. “And no,” He said, placing his hand on the desk.

“Honesty, remember,” she shot back.

His eyes narrowed. “Really? Then why don’t you go first?”

She sat back, surprised, but her action gave her away. He knew she was hiding something. Alex cocked his head, and she rolled her eyes. “I didn’t tell you something, but it wasn’t a big deal. Particularly if your brother is already angry with you. In fact, it might make it worse.”

That got his attention. “Tell me what it is, and I’ll tell you if it will make things worse.”

“First, tell mewhyyou’re in trouble. What did you do?”

He considered her for a moment. “The night Declan was here for dinner… We stopped off at Armstrong’s country club first to have a little conversation with him and Felix.”

Madison paled. “What does conversation mean?”

“Don’t look so worried. I am a skilled conversationalist, and even my brother couldn’t find fault with anything I said.” He smirked. “I simply wanted to introduce myself.”

“It mattered enough your mother flew here from Switzerland?—”

“I’m not discussing my mother.” His voice was hard, but he made a deliberate attempt to soften it. “Your turn. What happened last week?”

“I had a conversation, too.” She shifted in her seat. “Also, with Felix.”

Alex felt the tendons in his jaw grow tight. “What did you talk about?”

“He said some stuff about my sister that I didn’t like. I got mad, he got nasty, and then Mary showed up. That’s it.”

Blood rushed in his ears. “Unless you want me to imagine what happened—and I have a dark imagination, Angel—I’m going to need you to tell me what he said.”

“Calm down. It really wasn’t that bad. He was making empty threats about how he was going to keep Jax, and then he made comments about how I was using you to keep custody, but his father-in-law is more powerful than you are…”

Alex listened as she gave him the exact words exchanged. By the end, his brain had fixated on only one thing.

That motherfucker threatened her life.

“What do you think?” Madison's voice pulled him away from visualizing how many ways he could hurt the man, and he refocused on her face.

“I think your first instinct is right. Opal had something on the Senator, and she tried to use it.” He sat back, his gaze thoughtful. “I might have an idea what it involves.”

Madison’s mouth fell open, but when he didn’t say anything further, she snapped. “Are you going to tell me?”

He had a decision to make. Sharing bratva secrets could get them both killed, or scare her away, or worst-case scenario… both.

Alex exhaled sharply, rubbing a hand along his jaw. “Mikhail wants me to set up a legitimate looking company to bid ongovernment contracts. Armstrong happens to be the Senator in charge of awarding them. They are working together.”

Her brow furrowed, and he continued to explain. “The deal is simple—Mikhail’s company wins the bid. Armstrong gets his cut, and in return, Mikhail makes a fortune through inflated rates and ghost invoices for work that never gets done.”

“That’s why you can’t touch Armstrong.” Her entire face fell.

“No. It’s why I have to make sure it can’t be traced back to me. Now it’s looking like Armstrong may have screwed up. Anything he’d done prior to their involvement, Mikhail would have already cleaned up, so no one else could leverage his cash cow. Which means the thing Armstrong is afraid of having exposed must be tied to?—”

“What he’s doing for the bratva.”

Her eyes lit up with hope, and he chose his words with care. “We still need to figure out what it is though. It won’t be easy. Besides being unapologetically violent, Mikhail is also very intelligent. No one in the higher levels of the organization has been arrested for a reason. We are extremely careful.”

“There has to be something,” Madison insisted. “Because my sister found it.”

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