Alex Drakos: His Dangerous Affair (The Alex Drakos Romantic Suspense Series Book 4)

by Mallory Monroe

  Kari didn’t realize it was old footage, because the news report purposely didn’t make that distinction, and she could hardly believe her eyes. Alex was in New York. He was supposed to be in New York!

  “Alexander Drakos is with her,” the journalist continued, “celebrating the news I’m sure, and, perhaps, rekindling that love they used to share. What this might mean for his current relationship with that maid in Florida, love experts tell us, is of no consequence.”

  Then another video, of a love expert, talking to a reporter: “No consequence whatsoever,” said Mina Greene, an advice columnist for the Times. “He’s going to leave her. Narnia, as everybody used to affectionately call Ninochka, is the love of Alex’s life. That maid in Florida was just his rebound romance. He’ll dump her, no question, and reclaim his real, true love.” Then she smiled. “It’s so romantic, isn’t it?”

  Kari was stunned beyond words. So was Gillette. But instead of staring at the TV screen, he was staring at Kari.

  When the news first broke, Kari was nonplussed. “Not this shit again,” she was saying to herself. She’d been down that road before, where some woman from Alex’s past claimed to be his new love interest all over again. And it all turned out to be a big lie. But this Narnia person was different. This woman had been declared dead, if those reporters were to be believed, but she was found to be alive. And they claimed she was the love of his life. A woman Alex had never even mentioned to her!

  Kari rose, gathered up her portfolio and stuffed it inside her briefcase, and looked at Gillette. He rose too. “Thank you for your time,” she said, and began leaving.

  But Gillette saw what Drakos saw in Kari: Grit. True grit. What he’d give to have a woman like her! “Miss Grant?” he said.

  Kari turned to him.

  “If you still want the contract, it’s yours.”

  Kari was surprised to hear it.

  “My mother was a maid,” he said. “I didn’t like the way they’re so ready to discard you. They treated my mother the same way. But the contract is yours. Looks like you’re going to need it.”

  Kari stared at him. Her eyes were wide and pained. “Thank you,” she said. “Thank you very much.” And then she left.

  “You are the only one, baby. Why would you think differently?”

  Oz was standing outside of the Gillette building, leaned against Kari’s Rolls Royce, talking to a woman on his cell phone. “Just because I didn’t come by last night doesn’t mean I don’t want to be with you, baby. How could you think that?”

  Cars suddenly came flying from around the corner from both ends of the street, and they all raced into the parking lot where Oz stood. “What the?” Oz asked rhetorically, shocked by the urgency.

  But when he saw Kari walk out of the office building, and then saw reporters and photojournalists jump from those cars that had just arrived and ran across the parking lot toward her, with notepads and microphones in their hands, he was doubly shocked. Those jokers were there for Kari? Why? What happened?

  He tossed his cell phone into his pocket and ran toward the entrance. Kari was already pushing through the press gaggle and Oz began pushing through, too, to get to her side. Alex was going to kill him if he didn’t protect Kari from those monsters!

  As soon as he pushed past the final hurdle, a young reporter with his microphone literally shoved in Kari’s face, he grabbed hold of Kari and began hurrying her toward her car.

  Kari was relieved to see Oz, as her attempt to get away only netted her a few yards, and he took over completely. Within seconds they were running across the parking lot, pushing mightily through the crowd of journalists yelling questions at her, and Kari was placed into her car. Oz ran to the driver side, got in under the wheel, and took off. Kari just knew he was going to hit one of those reporters, but he didn’t. They pressed and clicked photos, but they also had enough sense to back off.

  And Oz was an expert driver. He got them out of that situation faster than Kari thought possible. She wanted to thank him. But she was too depressed. Because the facts were still the facts.

  But Oz didn’t know the facts. The entire time Kari was in that office building, he was on the phone with a woman whose name still escaped him. “What happened?” he asked as they were completely away from the scene, and those reporters were a distant memory.

  “This woman who had apparently been thought to be dead, is alive, and they claim she used to be the love of Alex’s life.”

  Oz frowned. “The love of his life?” Then his expression changed and he looked at Kari. “You mean Narnia?” he asked.

  Kari looked at him. “You know her?” she asked.

  “That’s who they’re talking about?”

  “Yes. They said that name. You know her?”

  Oz hesitated. “I know her.”

  Kari hated to hear that. Oz just made that shit real. Even he knew that woman had been the love of Alex’s life. The love of his life! Kari didn’t know how to deal with that kind of news. What was happening? Why hadn’t Alex told her about this woman? And why hadn’t he called? She glanced at her cell phone, to see if she had missed a call. But there were no phone calls from Alex.

  She looked forward. She was too distressed to do anything else.

  So was Oz.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  “As to his relationship with that maid in Florida,” a news commentator was on television saying, “I don’t think it will stop him from being with Narnia. I just don’t think so. He and Narnia had a special bond. That Florida woman is just some maid he picked up on the rebound, in my humble opinion.”

  “Mine too,” said another one. “Although there’s nothing humble about your opinion,” he added and the other commentators laughed. “But let’s be honest about this. An average-looking-at-best maid versus the gorgeous Narnia? No contest,” he said. “Let’s be truthful here. We all thought Alex had lost a step when word came he was involved at all with that Florida person. Not his usual cup of tea at all.”

  “Not at all,” said the first commentator. “Unless he suddenly developed a fetish for cleaning supplies and hand sanitizers or whatever else maids are known to use. A maid and the most eligible bachelor on the planet? Come on people. Come on!” All the other commentators laughed.

  Jordan’s jaw tightened every time those commentators referred to his mother so disrespectfully. But his mother didn’t say a word. She just sat there, held her glass of wine steadily, and took it. She took it! Jordan admired her for her strength, but he wasn’t taking it well at all.

  “How did the paparazzi find out where you were so fast?” Faye asked Kari.

  “That was my concern too,” Benny said. “So I asked around. Dezzamaine admitted she told them, although they did not tell her they were reporters. They told her they wanted to hire Kari’s cleaning service for a major function, and that they needed to get in touch with her urgently. She never once considered they could be lying. Why would she?”

  “But still, Benny,” said Lucinda. “She needs a serious reprimand. Dez can get ahead of herself. She talks far too much.”

  “Amen to that,” said Faye.

  They were at Faye and Benny’s house, in the living room, and Kari was seated on the sofa, sandwiched between Benny and Jordan. Faye and Lucinda sat across from them. Although Oz was up and pacing the floor, on the phone with Alex’s people desperately trying to get information, Jordan wasn’t saying anything. Which, Kari knew, meant he was deeply upset.

  “But when did the story first break?” Faye asked. “Not when that lawyer called Bill Gillette?”

  “About forty minutes before that,” said Benny. “And as soon as the story broke, they were racing to find Kari. That’s how they got to Gillette’s office so quickly.”

  Lucinda shook her head. “And where’s Alex in all of this?” she asked. “What has he told you, Kari?”

  Kari hated it. She hated that her business was all out in the open like that, the hot topic of conversation, and she couldn’
t do a damn thing about it. After retrieving Jordan from school, she had wanted to just go home, but the paparazzi were camped out at her house and office too. Benny called and told Oz to bring them to his place. “He hasn’t phoned yet,” she said to Lucinda.

  Jordan looked at her. “Did you call him?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Kari said. “Several times.”

  “And Oz has called him several more,” Benny said, “but none of Alex’s people are picking up.”

  “Why won’t he?” Lucinda asked. “He has to know somebody leaked it to the press. He has to know it by now.”

  “Oz is on the phone now with Jake Susskind, Alex’s man in Moscow,” Benny said, “to see what’s going on.” Then Benny looked at Oz. “But that doesn’t sound promising either,” he added.

  “When was the last time you heard from him?” Oz was asking over the phone.

  “When he arrived in Moscow,” said Jake. “He said he was on his way to Petroca.”

  Oz frowned. “To where?”

  “Petroca. It’s a remote location a couple hundred miles outside of Moscow. He has a safe house there.”

  “Is that where he actually is right now?” Oz asked.

  “I don’t know. I haven’t heard anything else.”

  “Then find the hell out, Jake!” Oz yelled. “I want to know where my brother’s at. Where the fuck is he?!”

  Alex was on his way to Petroca, sitting in the back of a limousine with SUV escorts in front of him, and SUV escorts in back, and he was unable to stop thinking about reasons. Why would she suddenly reemerge in Moscow, he wondered? And why had she never made any attempt to contact him to let him know she was alive? All those years of thinking she had died in that plane crash, and she never once told him the truth. All those years!

  And Kari, he thought. What about Karena? She didn’t deserve this shit. She deserved nothing but happiness in her life. She suffered enough pain and maltreatment. She deserved to never have to worry again. But all he did was bring worry and danger to her life. Now he was bringing this. Alex let out a long, exasperated exhale. Now he was bringing this!

  He looked at his cell phone. He hated to call her. He hated to be the bearer of bad news again. But Tino Castellano had told him that one of their guys had leaked it to the media, and those chat shows were already chatting it up like it was the biggest news of the day. Tino took care of the leaker, but that didn’t assuage Alex’s problem. He hadn’t spoken with Kari. And it was all for a cowardly reason. He didn’t want to hurt her. He just couldn’t bear hurting her!

  His cell phone had been turned off to avoid all phone calls related to this madness, and he kept it off. He put his cell phone away. Oz was there. He’d take care of Kari until he could get to her. But right now, Alex needed answers. He couldn’t tell her what he didn’t know, and he knew she was going to have many questions. Kari was the most inquisitive woman he’d ever been involved with.

  But when his entourage arrived at the safe house, and he got out and headed inside, and saw her sitting there, he couldn’t even think about Kari anymore. Or anything present. The past, that life he had with Narnia, came flooding back.

  Ninochka Kobalinski was in the living area, seated at a table and surrounded by a contingent of Alex’s men, and she looked up when Alex walked in.

  When Alex saw her, he was surprised by his reaction to her. He thought she was dead. They had just gone through the most consequential time of their entire relationship when she was thought to be killed in that plane crash. And it affected him. He felt guilty about that day for years. Seeing that she wasn’t a ghost, and that he had spotted her in that hotel just as he had thought, was jarring.

  She jumped up, and ran to him, and threw her arms around him. “Oleksiy!” she cried in her native Ukrainian tongue. “Oleksiy!” He felt her emotion. And had a little of his own.

  But he wasn’t buying the tears. That was no reunion. She knew she hadn’t died in that crash, and she kept it from him. He was there for business.

  He pulled back from her in such a way that made Narnia know he wasn’t going to let bygones by bygones. He was pissed. Cold. Uncompromising. He was still Alex. And she still wondered how she could have ever been with such an evil man like him.

  “I never got on that plane,” she said to him. “And when there was a plane crash, it was my perfect alibi. I knew why you were doing it. I knew why. And I couldn’t go along with that. I couldn’t, Alex.”

  Alex could have pursued that line of questioning, but there would be time to remember the past. He needed to know what she was up to, why she suddenly entered his orbit, in the here and now. If this woman meant him or his loved ones harm, he was going to handle it. “Why did you steal my oil?” he asked her.

  Narnia looked perplexed. “I did not,” she said. “What oil? I was living my life, hiding away from the public glare, in a small village in the Ukraine. I was protected by my father’s people.” Her father had once been a member of the Russian mafia. Now he was a recluse somewhere. “I was not out stealing anybody’s oil. How would I do such a thing?”

  “You weren’t hiding away, either, when I saw you in that Moscow hotel.”

  “I was there on business for my father. I had to meet with some Australians. That is all that was happening. How was I to know you would be at that same hotel? When I realized it was you, and you saw me, I ran from you. I did all I could to evade you. It was your men who tracked me down!”

  “What about Tenniston?” Alex asked.

  Narnia frowned. “Who?”

  “The Texas oilman.”

  Narnia appeared again to be perplexed. “I do not know a Texas oilman. Why do you ask me such questions, Alex, and not the real questions? Do you not want to know why I chose to let you believe I was dead?”

  Alex pulled out his cell phone and took her photograph. She was no longer brown-haired, but blonde. She looked different.

  She turned her face away, but only after the shot had been taken. “What is that for?” she asked.

  Alex didn’t answer her. He sent a text to Tenniston, attaching the photo, with a question: Is this the woman?

  Then he looked at Narnia. He looked her up and down. She didn’t look the same, but she still had maintained her beauty. That was for certain. “Why?” he asked her.

  Narnia sat down in a nearby chair. “Because I knew the truth. And I couldn’t accept that.”

  “But you never once considered how I would feel?”

  “I considered it, yes,” she said. “But I knew what you would have done. I was not prepared to live like that.”

  And then his cell phone rang. It was Tenniston. “No,” he said to Alex. “That’s not her.”

  “To what degree of certainty are you?” Alex asked.

  “A hundred percent degree. I’d remember that face. It wasn’t her.”

  Alex exhaled, thanked Tenniston, and ended the call. Then he looked at Narnia again. And the question that he had been dying to ask since he first spotted her in that hotel, dripped slowly from his lips as if it would destroy him if he spoke those words too quickly.

  “What about the child?” he asked her.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Kari, Faye, and Lucinda were in Faye’s kitchen preparing dinner for the men. The men: Benny, Oz, and Jordan, were upfront talking amongst themselves. Kari and Lucinda were chopping up celery and bell peppers. Faye was seasoning steaks.

  “At some point,” Kari said as she chopped, “I’ve got to go home.” All three women stood around the big, beautiful center island preparing the meal.

  “As soon as those reporters move on to the next headline news,” Faye said, “then you can go anywhere you like. But you know how it works. You’ll have to give them a day or two first, but they’ll move on.”

  “I just can’t understand Alex,” Lucinda said. “Why would he ask you to marry him if his heart belonged to somebody else?”

  Kari’s own heart sank when Lucinda said those words. But she was only saying wh
at Kari had been thinking all along.

  “And why wouldn’t he tell Kari about her?” Lucinda asked.

  “I knew about her,” Kari said, and Faye and Lucinda looked at her.

  “You did?” Faye asked. “Since when?”

  “Since I read that unauthorized biography about him when we first met. She was supposedly somebody he liked, but she was like all the other women in his life, and it mentioned how she had died in a plane crash. But that was all it said about her. I didn’t think she was anything special in his life. That lady who wrote that biography didn’t think so.”

  “That’s why it was unauthorized, Kari,” said Lucinda, “she probably didn’t know any of the inside scoop. She was clueless!”

  “But when I first heard the news today, and they were talking about it,” Faye said, “I was so angry with those reporters. Not that fake shit again, I said to myself.”

  “So did I,” said Kari.

  “Little did we know,” Faye added, and she and Kari glanced at each other.

  Then Kari’s cell phone rang. Faye and Lucinda jumped, and Jordan, Oz, and Benny ran into the kitchen too. You could hear a pin drop by the time Kari grabbed her phone, saw that it was indeed Alex, and answered it.

  They wanted her to put the call on Speaker, but they all knew Kari wouldn’t do that to Alex.

  “Hello?” she asked.

  “Hey. You and Jordan okay? Oz with you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good.” Then a pause. “How did the meeting go with that guy? Gillette, was that his name?”

  Kari didn’t want to small talk with him! Her life was falling apart, literally by its seams, and he wanted to small talk? “Yes, that’s his name,” she said. “It went okay.”

  “Deal or no deal?”