Page 34 of Ruthless Rustanovs

ALEXEI knew something was wrong as soon as he woke up. It wasn’t just that Eva wasn’t in bed…but the suite felt different. Like something was missing. Or someone.

He recognized the feeling almost at once. It was how he’d felt when he came home to an empty apartment eight years ago.

“Tell me you did not run again,” he said to himself, getting out of bed and heading straight for Eva’s bedroom.

All the clothes he’d bought for her were still hanging in the open closet. And in typical Eva fashion, the clothes she’d worn last night before dinner were in a discarded pile on the floor. From what he could tell, she’d only become slightly neater since the last time they’d lived together.

But the clothes that mattered, the ones she’d traveled in to get here, the ones that had been sitting in a laundry bag on her dresser just a few days ago, were missing. The torn-into laundry bag the only evidence they’d ever been there.

Why had she run yet again? Desperate anger and frustration gathered inside him like a storm cloud as he threw on a robe and headed out to the hallway.

Was it because he had pressured her? Because he’d told her he loved her?

Another more terrible thought occurred to him.

Maybe this was her way of informing him she’d chosen Aaron.

But then he saw the open door to the conference room. He rarely ever used that room and hadn’t gone in recently. So why was the door opened?

Alexei noticed the scattered papers from the doorway, and his heart fell into his stomach when he spotted a printout of the Dallas Times article.

He’d planned to tell Gina to kill the article this morning, but it was too late.

The damage was done, and who knew what Eva was thinking.

She probably assumed everything he’d told her last night was a lie and that he was exactly what she’d accused him of being: a man who would do anything to win.

Anguish at the thought of losing her tore through him.

He had to fix this. She’d probably returned to Drummond.

He’d follow her there and do whatever he had to do to make her understand he really loved her.

No more lies, no more manipulation, just the two of them like the last eight years had never happened.

His smart phone, which he’d stuffed in the pocket of his robe, started vibrating. It was Emilio. He pushed the speaker button. “I was just about to call you,” he said. “I need a plane to take me to Drummond. I want to be in the air within the hour.”

“Um, I think you’ll want to hear what I have to say first. The guy I hired to look into this Aaron person couldn’t find anyone by that name in Drummond.

Or, he couldn’t find any adults. So, he looked for documents linking Eva to an Aaron and he found quite a few, including a birth certificate and school records. ”

Alexei shook his head, his mind reeling with this new information. “You are saying she and this Aaron have a school-aged child together?”

“No, I’m saying Aaron is her child. He was born about seven and a half years after Eva left you. My guy emailed me a photo of him which I’m looking at right now. Of course, we’d have to get a DNA test, but if the eyes are any indication, I’d say this is your kid.”