Page 20 of The Fixer

“I’m— I—w-what do you want?” Perching on the ottoman, I held my head in my free hand and fought a sigh. “I have more time to—”

“You always have more time until it runs out, Ophelia. I gave you two months to prove your worth to me because I know you already have appointments that you can’t just move up. I didn’t just spit out a time frame. Relax.”

Aleksander Makovich telling me to relax only wound me up more tightly, and my back started to ache.

“Anyway… there is one urgent thing. This plot… It doesn’t seem like your mother or brother could draft it by themselves. Even with your father’s half a brain, it’s a little too sophisticated. I want your input, do you have any idea where they’d get some… inspiration?”

Long, nimble fingers wrapped around my shoulders and the base of my neck as I sucked in a sharp breath. Licking my dry lips, I leaned into Sascha’s hands to close my eyes. Every thought I could conjure flashed behind my lids. His warmth, his wonderful touch, combatted the icy tendrils slithering from my phone. Firmly kneading the writhing muscles under my skin with his thumbs, Sascha silently kissed my other cheek. “Erik Avernisk is the only one I can think of. You already have him, though, so why not just ask him?”

“He’s a world class liar. Even if I did ask him, I wouldn’t believe anything he said. Right now, he’s with Demitr and holding out, which is surprising. It’d be foolish of me to save face and not admit that I can’t read him…can’t tell if he’s lying to me. It’d be even worse to think I could trust what he said. You’ve known each other all your lives, Ophelia. Why are you so sure it’s him?”

My mouth dried at his brutal honesty, my lips falling into a deep frown. Aleksander Makovich… bad at something—the audacity! How strange it truly was to listen to someone like him admit he couldn’t do something. Slumping back into Sascha’s arms fully, I flopped my head back and moved my phone to my other ear. My heart beat slowed as he locked me in his secure embrace; in his arms, not even Aleksander could hurt me.

Of course, it helped that Aleksander was 700 kilometers away.

“Erik loves animals. Torturing him won’t get you anything, but…” Trailing off as sourness coated my tongue as I inhaled big through my nose. “I’m sure its him because there’s no one else. Everyone else is dead or too young to be able to do something like this. Even if it’s not him, why does it matter to you? Your best option is to replace everyone. You’ll never trust Erik and there’s no ‘maybe’ about it, Aleksander.”

“Replace everyone butyou, you mean?”

I gulped hard at this, and Sascha’s arms tightened around me. Pulling me deeper into his lap, he buried his face in my neck. Just his mere presence comforted me.

Aleksander Makovich didn’t let me savor it as he went on, “I was thinking you’d be able to get more information, or at least, watch his interrogation. I’ve arranged for you to come to Saint Petersburg, your flight leaves Moscow Vnukovo Airport in 4 hours.”

“… I can’t just get a Skype call? How long is this going to take? Because I’m still sifting through my parents’ stuff and all assassination plots aside, I have to rework my Ukraine meeting in three weeks because they never screwed up what I predicted they would.”I don’t even want to think about this right now.I couldn’t have one day…oneday!

My bland tone drew silence from the line.

“It’s easy to call me and have me fix problems, but I’m rarely on the proactive side, you know this. Two months and I—“

“Ophelia…”

The hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up, and my heart leaped into my throat.

“Shut up and get here when you’re supposed to. Unless you want to end up next to your brother and parents, do what you’re told. You’re right, training someone new will be a hassle and a waste of time, but I have time. Do you?” Aleksander’s tone could cut steel, hard and low and crisp, not like he was grinding through his teeth because he was angry. No, this was something he did often enough to know the impact it had on everyone.

I felt the blood drain from my face, silence ringing in my ears when my own pulse nearly stopped.

“Unfortunately, I’m not in as good a mood as I was the day I killed your parents. Let me put this in terms you’ll understand.” He cleared his throat patronizingly. “Open your mouth unnecessarily, and you’ll have a hole through the back of it. Got it? Good. Someone will be waiting for you when you land to bring you to my mansion. Oh, and before I forget… Bring your boyfriend. I’m keen on finishing our conversation.”

My abdomen tightened as even the trilling vanished from my scope of comprehension. “Y-yes…” Aleksander hung up, the shortbeeps sending jolts through my face. A powerful headache sprung behind my eyes, as goosebumps blanketed my entire body.What the fuck is going on?I blinked hard, gulping down the dense lump in my throat that made it impossible to breathe. My lungs screamed for fresh air.

“Oppie…”

The tender call made me jump and I whipped around with a strangled gasp. My hand flew for Sascha’s face but missed, my nails barely scratching the tip of his nose.

He didn’t even jerk back, his eyes widening.

I found enough mind to glare. Shock slackened his thickly stubbled jaw as my own clenched to grind my teeth.

“Why can’t you just…” Trailing off, I lost my train of thought under the sharp ache against my forehead, I slid off the edge of the sofa. My legs— I couldn’t feel them…

I couldn’t feel anything.

“Fuck…” Slurring heavily, I buried my hands into my hair to ease some of the pressure on my chest. It didn’t help; I still couldn’t breathe, and black spots assaulted the edges of my vision. “What do I do?”

At this point, I’d rather fucking die than deal with Aleksander Makovich. This was too much to put on my shoulders. I didn’t want to suffer through this anymore, and it’d only been a few days!

Why— why— why was I being subjected to this shit?