Page 179 of Malicious Claim

Leila watched him, uneasy. "Do you know who did it?"

"No." His voice was flat. "But I'll find out."

She hesitated. "Could it have been... one of your people?"

Makros's jaw twitched. "If it was, they'll be dead by morning for not waiting for my instructions."

"I thought you wanted them dead?" Leila pressed before she could stop herself.

He sneered. "I did but—forget it."

Leila was relentless with the questions.

"Okay, how do you know it wasn't someone Aleksei knew?"

Makros could have shut her up if he wanted to but he didn't want his frustration to be evident.

"Aleksei doesn't know anybody that can pull such strings."

Makros tried to do some calculations in his head and time and time again he came up with the same chilling possibility.What if the parrot perched beside him was the reason the Volkov brothers were dead? First he'd been shot at. Then a threat was delivered to his father. And now, mere minutes after someone took a shot at her, the Volkovs were gone.

He reached for the burner phone stashed in the console, tapped out a number, then stopped, his thumb hovering just above the screen.

His jaw tightened.

"No," he muttered, more to himself than her. He locked the screen and tossed the phone back into the console with a dull thud. "Not yet."

Leila turned to him, frowning. "Who were you going to call?"

Makros kept his eyes on the road. "It doesn't matter, because if I call now, they'll know I didn't do it. And I want them to wonder."

Leila crossed her arms, trying to ignore the way her pulse raced. "So what now?"

He exhaled, slowly and deliberately. "Now I wait to see who makes the next move."

"The next move. What if it's you next?"

He finally turned to her with a ruthless and unreadable look.

"Then I won't be the only one bleeding."

Her breath caught. She looked away, back to the window. The city lights looked colder now. Less comforting. More ominous.

Nicolai pulled the car to a sudden stop at a red light, the engine idling as he waited. He'd been listening in on their conversation and he had a theory of his own but far be it for him to interfere.

Makros after stewing in the silence spoke as the car resumed its drive again.

"I didn't kill the Volkovs. But someone wants it to look like I did."

He paused.

"And that means they want you dead too."

Leila's stomach twisted. She didn't ask why he said that. But she already assumed that she knew. Because being at Makros's side meant being in the line of fire.

Always.

Chapter Sixty-Six