Page 8 of Ruthless Rustanovs

She’d run. The first chance she’d had, Eva ran again. Alexei would have gone after her but Caroline caught his arm before he had the chance.

“Lex, what is going on?” she asked. Even a seasoned lover like her didn’t expect to exit the bathroom to discover her date on the verge of an orgasm with another woman.

“I’m sorry,” he said, despite wanting nothing more than to hunt Eva down, throw her on the ground, and bury himself inside her. One of his business rules was he could be an asshole all he wanted to peers and rivals, but he would always treat those who worked for him with respect.

Caroline didn’t exactly work for him, but he definitely had the upper hand in terms of their relationship.

He’d bought her a two-bedroom flat on the Upper East Side in a building with a door attendant.

He also put a large sum of money in her bank account each month to keep her in designer clothes, eating gourmet meals, and enjoying any other luxuries she fancied.

In exchange, Caroline made herself available as his date or bed partner wherever and whenever he wanted.

But there in the hallway in the wake of what had just happened with Eva, Alexei knew he and Caroline would not be spending the rest of the evening together.

When their limo pulled up at the hotel entrance, Alexie turned to Caroline. “I’m sorry, but some unexpected business has come up. I won’t be available tonight. You can stay in our room and I’ll send for the jet to take you back to New York first thing in the morning. Call Emilio. He’ll set it up.”

Caroline dropped her eyes, obviously stuck between the understood terms of their relationship and confused annoyance.

“Are you dumping me?” she asked, disbelief ringing in her voice. For Caroline who could have just about any man she wanted, it was probably hard to fathom being dumped for a random woman in cowboy boots and a yellow party dress. “Who is she?”

“Unfinished business, that’s all. I’m not dumping you. I simply want to take care of this tonight. I’ll have Emilio call you when I’m back in New York and we’ll go out to dinner.”

Caroline gritted her teeth. He could tell she wanted answers but was reluctant to press for them for fear of talking herself out of their arrangement. But Alexei knew she would cave to his commands. All women could be manipulated with money. Eva taught him this the hard way.

“Fine,” she said. “I’ll call your assistant when I get back to the room.”

He nodded at the hotel’s door attendant who stood patiently on Caroline’s side of the limo. He opened the door for her and that was it. She smoothly exited the vehicle leaving Alexei free to deal with Eva St. James.

It only took his assistant Emilio thirty minutes to track down Eva’s reservation at a chain hotel just a few blocks from the one he’d just abandoned Caroline in.

But a few minutes later, Emilio texted him to say she’d already checked out, and a few minutes after that, he found out she was on a plane back to Dallas.

Alexei’s usual scowl deepened. It was just like eight years ago.

When Eva ran from him, she really ran. Back then, he hadn’t been able to track her down as much as he had embarrassed himself trying.

He’d called her close friends over and over again and haunted the School of Social Work outside his shift hours, hoping to catch her on her way in or out.

But he never saw her and a few weeks later one of the social work students took pity on him and let him know Eva had transferred to another program.

After that, Alexei couldn’t study. He couldn’t sleep.

If not for Emilio, who was a fellow minimum-wage security guard and three years Alexei’s junior, he would have been fired from his job and kicked out of the MBA program.

But after the third time he showed up for their shift switch, hungover from the night before because he’d drunk himself into a stupor over Eva, Emilio abandoned the front desk, took Alexei to his nearby dorm room, and threw him in a cold shower.

From that point on, Emilio made sure Alexei ate, studied, and didn’t keep any liquor in his apartment until the worst of the heartbreak passed and he could move on.

But not forget. No, Alexei would never forget the condescending note she left on his refrigerator door.

He eventually had it framed and kept it in the bottom drawer of his work desk at his New York office.

Whenever he felt his focus and drive wane, he would take the letter out and re-read it.

That was all it took for him to feel his angry ambition spike again.

“I want Drummond Oil,” he told Emilio over the phone. “Set it in motion.”

A long silence came from Emilio’s end of the line. “Are you sure about that, man? You’ve come a long way, buddy. She’s not worth you going off the deep end for again.”

“I know this,” Alexei said. “Which is why it’s the perfect time to get my revenge. Now, make it happen.”

Emilio sighed and hung up without another word. He made more money now than he could have ever dreamed back in the days when he and Alexei were unarmed security guards trying to scrape by. Like most people in Alexei’s life, he didn’t poke the dragon if he didn’t have to.

Alexei hung up just as the driver pulled into the private air field from where his jet would take off. Oh, yes, Eva might have run but this time she definitely wouldn’t be able to hide.