Page 33 of Convincing Alex (Stanislaskis #4)

she’d poured for Charlie and topped off her glass. “I can also see that you’ve already made up your mind, so explanations

would be pointless.”

“You move fast, Bess.”

She was glad she had her back to him for a moment. Very glad, because her hand trembled as she lifted the wine. “Do you think

so, Alexi?”

“Or maybe you’ve been seeing him all along.”

“You can say that?” Now she turned, and the first flashes of anger burst through her. “You can stand there and say that to

me?”

“What the hell do you expect me to say?” he shot back. He didn’t go near her. Didn’t dare. “I walk in here and find you with

him. A little music, a nice bottle of wine.” He wished he had been shot. It couldn’t possibly hurt more than this bite of

betrayal. “Do you think I’m an idiot?”

“No. No, I don’t.” She needed to sit, but she locked her knees straight. “But I must be to have been so careless as to have

an assignation here when you were bound to find me out.” Her eyes were like glass as she toasted him. “Caught me.”

He took a step forward, stopped himself. “Are you going to tell me you didn’t sleep with him?”

In the thrum of silence, the flutes sang. “No, I’m not going to tell you that. I’m not ashamed that I once cared enough for

a very good man to be intimate with him. I’d tell you that I haven’t been with Charlie or anyone else since I met you, but

the evidence is against me, isn’t it, Detective?”

She was so tired, Bess thought, so terribly tired, and the scent of the lilacs made her want to weep. Rosalie’s funeral had

been that morning, and she’d quietly made the arrangements herself. She’d gone alone, without mentioning it to Alex. But she’d

needed him.

“You let him kiss you.”

“Yes, I let him kiss me. I’ve let lots of men kiss me. Isn’t that the problem?” She set down the wine before she could do

something rash, like tossing it to the floor. “You didn’t come to me a virgin, Alexi, nor did I expect you to. That’s one

of the big differences between us.”

“There’s a bigger difference between a virgin and a—”

He broke off, appalled with himself. He wouldn’t have meant it. Stumbling, horrified apologies whirled through his head. But

he could see by the way her head jerked up, the way her color drained, that there would be no taking back even the unsaid.

“I think,” she said in an odd voice, “you’d better go.”

“We haven’t finished.”

“I don’t want you here. Even a whore can choose.”

His face was as pale as hers. “Bess, I didn’t mean that. I could never mean that. I want to understand—”

“No, you don’t.” She cut him off, her voice so thick with tears that she had to fight for every word. “You never wanted to

understand, Alexi. You never wanted to hear the one thing I needed you to believe. Now the only thing you need to understand

is that I don’t want to see you again.”

He felt something rip apart in his gut. “You can’t have that.”

“If you don’t leave now, I’ll call Security. I’ll call your captain, I’ll call the mayor.” Desperation was rising like a flood.

“Whatever it takes to keep you away from me.”

His eyes narrowed, sharpened. “You can call God Almighty. It won’t stop me.”

“Maybe this will.” She gripped her hands tightly together and looked just over his shoulder. “I don’t love you, I don’t want

you, I don’t need you. It was fun while it lasted, but the game’s over. You can let yourself out.”

She turned away and walked quickly up the stairs. There had been hurt in his eyes. If there had been anger, she knew, he would

have come after her, but there had been hurt, and she made it to the bedroom alone. With her hands over her face, she waited,

biting back sobs, until she heard the door close downstairs. With a sound of mourning, she lowered herself to the floor and

tasted her own tears. They were bitter.

Impatient and unsympathetic, Mikhail paced the floor of Alex’s sparsely furnished apartment. “You don’t answer your phone,”

he was saying. “You don’t return messages.” He kicked a discarded shirt aside. The apartment was a shambles. “Lucky for you

I came instead of Mama. She’d box your ears for living like a pig.”

“I gave the staff the month off.” With the concentrated care of the nearly drunk, Alex poured another glass of vodka from

the half-empty bottle on the table.

“And drinking alone in the middle of the day.”

“So, join me.” Alex gestured carelessly toward the kitchen, where dishes were piled high. “Bound to be a clean glass somewhere.”

Mikhail washed one out before coming back to the table. He sat, poured. “What is this, Alexi?”

“Celebration. My day off.” Alex took a swallow and waited for the vodka to join the rest swimming through his system. “I caught

the bad guy.” With a half laugh, he toasted himself. “And lost the girl.”

Mikhail drummed his fingers on the table as he drank. It was no less than he’d expected. “You fought with Bess?”

“Fought?” Lips pursed, Alex studied the clear, potent liquid in his glass. “I don’t know that’s the term, exactly. Found her

with another man.”

Mikhail’s glass froze halfway to his lips. “You’re wrong.”

“Nope.” Alex reached for the bottle with an almost steady hand. “Walked in and found her lip-locked to this guy she used to

be engaged to. Bess has this hobby of getting engaged.”

Mikhail merely shook his head. Something was not quite right with this picture. “Did you kill him?”

“Thought about it.” Before he drank again, Alex ran his tongue over his teeth. Good, he thought. They were nearly numb. The

rest would follow. “Too damn bad I’m a cop.”

“What was her explanation?”

“Didn’t give me one. Got pissed, is all.” He set the glass down so that he could use both hands to rub his face.

“Because you accused without trusting.”

“I didn’t accuse,” Alex shot back, then pressed his fingers to his burning eyes. “I didn’t have to. What I didn’t say was

unforgivable. She tossed me out on my ear, but not before she told me she didn’t love me anyway.”

“She lies.” Before Alex could lift his glass again, Mikhail grabbed his wrist. “I tell you, she lies. A few days ago she visited

Rachel and the baby. I made her sit for me and sketched her while she talked of you. There’s no mistaking what I saw in her

eyes, Alexi. You’re blind if you haven’t seen it yourself.”

He had seen it, and the pain of remembering what he’d seen clawed through him so that he stumbled to his feet as if to escape

it. “She falls in love easily.”

“So? There is love, and love. How many times have you taken the fall?”

“This is the first.”

“For this kind, yes. There were others.”

“They were different.”

“Ah.” Patient and amused, Mikhail held up a finger. “So it’s okay for you to play with love until you find the truth, but

it’s not okay for Bess.”

“It’s—” Put that way, it was tough to argue with. Especially when his head was reeling. “Damn it, I was jealous. I have a

right to be jealous.”

“You have a right to make an ass of yourself, too.” Pleased, now that he knew it could be fixed, Mikhail kicked back and crossed

his booted feet. “Did you?”

“Big-time.” Alex swayed, then sat down heavily. “I was going to ask her to marry me, Mik. I had the ring in my pocket and

these stupid lilacs. I was scared to death she’d say yes. More scared that she’d say no.” He propped his spinning head in

his hands. “What the hell was she doing kissing that son of a bitch?”

“Maybe if you had asked nicely, she would have told you.”

With a lopsided grin, Alex turned his bleary eyes on his brother. “Would you have asked nicely?”

“No, I would have broken his arms, maybe his legs, too. Then I would have asked.” With a sigh, Mikhail patted Alex’s shoulder.

“But that is me. You were always more impulsive.”

“We could go find him.” Alex considered and, warming to the idea, leaned over to give Mikhail a sloppy hug. “We’ll go beat

him up together. Like old times.”

“We’ll try something different.” Rising, Mikhail hauled Alex to his feet.

“Where we going?”

“I’m going to put you in a cold shower until your head’s clear.”

Alex staggered and linked an arm around his brother’s neck. “What for?”

“So you can go find your woman and grovel.”

Unsure of his footing, Alex stared at the tilting floor. “I don’t wanna grovel.”

“Yes, you do. It’s best to get used to it before you marry her. I have more experience in this.”

“Oh, yeah?” Enjoying the idea of his big brother crawling at Sydney’s feet, he grinned as Mikhail thrust him, fully clothed,

into the shower. “Can I watch next time?”

“No.” With immense satisfaction, Mikhail turned the cold water on full and listened to his brother’s pained shout bounce viciously

on the tiles. “This is a very good start,” he decided.

“You son of a bitch.” They were both laughing when Alex grabbed Mikhail in a headlock and dragged him under the spray.

He was nearly sober by the time he walked into Bess’s office, but he wasn’t laughing. It was hard to laugh when your throat

was thick with nerves.

He was going to be reasonable, he promised himself. They would discuss the entire matter like civilized adults. And if she

didn’t give him the right answers, he’d strangle her. He could always arrest himself afterward.

But he saw only Lori sitting at the keyboard, frantically typing. “I’ll have the damn changes by six,” she called out. Her

brow was furrowed in concentration as she glanced up. Her eyes frosted over.

“What the hell do you want?”

“I need to see Bess.”

“You’re out of luck.” Nobody hurt her friend and got away with it. Nobody. “She’s not here.”

“Where?”

She offered an anatomically impossible suggestion, offered it so coolly he nearly smiled. But it wasn’t enough. She leapt

up and slammed the door shut. Locked it. “Sit down, buster, I’ve got an earful for you.”

“Tell me where she is.”

“When hell freezes over. Do you know what you did to her?” She took the flat of her hand to push him back. “Why didn’t you

just cut out her heart and slice it into little pieces while you were at it?”