Page 106 of Love to Defy You
The door to the apartment building opens, and Mikhail follows the security guard out to greet me. Mick pauses, staring at me with a weary expression. “Hey, buddy. Uh, who are you talking to?”
I turn around to face Grigor, but he’s gone. Evaporated into thin air. All that remains is a haze of cigar smoke that is so thick, I start to cough.
The guard tips his chin at me. “So, you know this guy?”
Mikhail takes in my appearance and switches to Russian. “Jesus. What happened to you?”
I clear my throat. “I was hoping you’d tell me.” I push off the wall and walk right past the fuming security guard. “Let’s talk about this upstairs.”
Mikhail calms him down before meeting me at the elevator. We file inside, where he presses the button for the top floor, but he sniffs the air and retreats to the opposite wall. “Dude, you reek.”
I scoff. “I haven’t showered since you and the rest of your Illuminati friends gave me an ice bath and branded me. It’s infected, by the way.” I hold up my arm to show him.
Mikhail frowns. “Well, no wonder it’s infected. Gross, dude.” The elevator doors ping open, and Mikhail steps out onto the private landing to his penthouse. “Let’s get you a shower, yeah?”
I limp after him into his ultra-modern bachelor pad. “Mikhail, what day is it?”
He leads me down the hall and stops at a linen closet to pull out a towel. “Sunday.”
Cold dread settles in my chest. “Which Sunday?”
Mikhail pauses and looks at me with his brows furrowed. “April twentieth.”
I slump against the wall to keep from falling over. A week. I’ve been gone for more than a whole fucking week. That would explain Henri’s advanced decomposition.
“Did you go on a bender or something?” Mikhail sighs and leads me into the guest bathroom. He flicks on the light, and he gives me a strange look when I immediately turn it off. “Let me guess. You and Willow had a fight about Enzo. Is that why you weren’t texting her back?”
I grab his shoulders and spin him around to face me. “Mikhail, I just got released from my cell less than an hour ago.”
“No, we let the candidates out on the thirteenth.”
“Oh, really?” I step back and slump against the bathroom counter. “You didn’t notice I was missing, asshole? And what about Henri? Didn’t you notice him hanging from a belt, dead in his cell?”
The color drains from his face as his eyes grow wide. “Fuck. I left a few minutes early to catch my late flight to Ibiza. Paul and a few of the others were in charge of wrapping it up.”
“Oh, yes, Paul and I have become very good friends,” I seethe.
“Dammit, I should have fucking stayed to make sure you got out okay. I didn’t realize…” Mikhail runs his hands down his face. “Henri hung himself?”
“Yeah.”
He shakes his head somberly. “Shit. There’s always one.” His voice is quiet and introspective until he glances at me. “So,you’re telling me you’ve been in sensory deprivation for over a week?”
“It would seem so.”
He shakes his head. “Then why did you text me on Tuesday saying you were fine?”
“Mick, my phone is missing. I haven’t seen it since I turned it over to— Oh, fuck. Fuck!” I slam my fist on the counter. “Enzo texted you back on my phone, pretending to be me.”
“Are you sure?”
“Unless he passed my phone off to someone else to do his dirty work, then yes. I’m sure.” My stomach churns as unease settles over me. “I need to talk to Willow right fucking now. Give me your phone.” I hold out my hand.
He pulls his phone from the pocket of his jeans, and I snatch it away from him. I pull up his most recent text conversation with Willow, but before I press the call button, I read their conversation.
WILLOW
Hey, I haven’t heard from Alek. Can you try calling him to make sure he’s okay?
