by Lila Dubois
Alexander carefully composed the sentence before he spoke. “Not unless we have to. If your company can’t track it, I’ll hire someone who can.”
“Interpol’s database—”
“She mentioned the authorities,” Alexander said softly. “Asked if they would be joining us. Right before you arrived.”
Fischer paused. “You think she may have a plan to escape the police?”
“Bribes. Connections.” Alexander suggested.
“Possibly, though keeping her is risky.” It was clear Fischer didn’t like where this conversation was headed.
Alexander didn’t give a shit what the RTW commander thought.
“I’m going to speak with her. Alone.”
“Sir, that is not a good idea.”
“I didn’t ask for your opinion.” Alexander took his phone from his pocket and sent a quick text to his VP of security and operations. Fischer would fill her in on what had happened, and she could oversee the investigation into where the data had been sent and who she had worked for in the past.
As for dealing with Alena herself, he had a plan. A plan born of the icy-rage inside him, and a need to protect his secrets.
Chapter 3
“Leave.” Alexander’s single word rang with enough command that the security personnel standing guard all swiveled to face him.
Behind Alexander the man who’d led the questioning—she’d heard one of them refer to their leader as Fischer—nodded.
The men filed out, some better at hiding their expression than others. They clearly didn't think it was a good idea to leave her alone with Alexander. She wasn't so naïve as to think it was concern for her, the helpless damsel, that prompted their mute disapproval.
She’d even tried the helpless damsel routine on the one who’d been in the closet with her and it had gotten her nowhere.
The security personnel were smart and well-trained enough, they were probably objecting to what was a clear tactical mistake—leaving a captive with someone who was not trained to handle that type of situation.
The last man out pulled the door partially closed leaving it open several centimeters, enough so they be able to hear what was happening in the room.
Alexander stretched out one long arms and pushed the door fully closed.
Then he locked it.
Alena's heartbeat began to race.
“Alexander?”
He walked down to the other end of the elegant conference room and locked that door.
“Alexander, I’m so sorry that—”
“That what?” He still had his back to her, and his shoulders sagged.
Alena closed her eyes. She reminded herself that he was dangerous, she’d seen that, felt it, when he caught her on the stairs and choked her.
But right now he seemed wounded. A man betrayed.
He turned around. “That what, Magdalena?”
“Alena. That wasn’t a lie. Alena is the name I use.”
“So only your family name was a lie?”
“Alexander, please believe me. I had no idea what would happen between us. My attraction to you, the way you make me feel, that was something I didn’t plan for.”
“What was your plan?” He bit off the last word. “Fuck me so I’d let you into my house?”
“No. That’s why my original limits included no intimacy.”
“You think that doesn’t make you a whore?”
Alena’s body jerked, and if her arms hadn’t been zip tied to the arms of the chair she would have lashed out and slapped him.
“Ah, that got a reaction.” His smile was more like a sneer. “Don’t like the truth?”
She forced a cold smile onto her face. “I’m a little disappointed you couldn’t do better than calling me a ’ho.” She smirked at his clear confusion over her slang term.
Alexander perched on the edge of the table, his foot an inch from her knee. He wore slacks and a button down-shirt. It was probably what he thought of as casual weekend wear but he still looked polished and wealthy. He leaned forward.
“If I were you, I’d watch my tongue.”
“The line is ‘I wouldn’t say such things if I were you.’”
Alexander’s arm shot out. Alena wished she were the kind of person who could remain stoically still. But she wasn’t, and she flinched back, turning her face away.
Alexander snorted in derision. “Scared?”
“What do you want, Alexander?” She licked her lips and straightened. “You want to knock me around as punishment? Beat me so I’ll tell you what I know?”
“And if I do?” His face was an unreadable mask.
“Then that will hurt a lot, I will cry, maybe beg you to stop, but I still won’t tell you.”
“There are things that wouldn’t leave a mark.”
“I would really prefer not to be waterboarded, but if it will make you feel better…” She shrugged.
“You are clever. That means you had a plan in the event you were caught.”
“The plan usually includes not getting caught.”
“But you had a plan. Austrian jails are not like your American ones. Perhaps you don’t fear prison.”
Alexander paused for several moments, and the silence was agonizing.
“Perhaps you have a plan to escape police custody.”
Alena held very still. She did not like where this line of reasoning was taking the conversation.
“You mentioned the authorities. Said you assumed they’d arrive soon.”
Damn it.
Alexander’s dangling foot swung casually, and he seemed to relax a little more with each moment of silence, even as that same silence made her muscles knot with tension and dread.
“I will not call the police,” he said menacingly
Alena forced a smile even as her internal monologue began a looping string of cuss words.
“Really? That’s a plot twist I didn’t see coming. So tell me, Alexander, what are you planning on doing?” She raised her chin. “Going to finish choking me then have my body placed in a shallow grave?”
His foot stopped swinging and his body stiffened as he looked at her neck. She hadn’t seen a mirror so she didn’t know if his fingers had left bruises on her, or if it was just the memory that caused him to tense.
Baiting him was painfully stupid, because she was banking on him not actually killing her. It was both naive and hypocritical of her to assume that the intimacy they shared, plus her assessment of his character, meant she wasn’t in mortal danger.
But he’d been angry, so terribly angry. It had hurt to see it, because she was the reason for it.
And because behind that anger, deep in his green eyes, she’d seen hurt. The pain of betrayal.
She’d done that to him.
And she hated herself for it.
But it didn’t change what she had to do. She’d lost this round. Maybe she was wrong and she wasn’t the player, but a piece. The white queen taken out by the black knight in a move the queen hadn’t seen coming.
She wished she could tell him this was all just a game. That in the end what she was doing would actually help him.
But while the game was in progress she couldn’t back out.
She had to hope that the information from the HPA had gotten to its destination, and that even now the next moves were being plotted.
But without her phone, she had no way of knowing what was happening in the outside world.
“Alexander, if you give me my phone I can—”
“No.”
“I can’t tell you everything, but I might be able to tell you something.”
His gaze burned into her. “You will not be contacting anyone.”
“…because you’re going to murder me?”
Alexander blinked, and his lips twitched with the barest hint of a smile. The expression was so familiar that it made her heart clench.
It also made her remember what it felt like to have those lips on her skin, and it was an absolutel
y terrible time to be thinking about their sexual history.
The smile disappeared, the cold mask once more in place. “I’ll offer you a bargain.”
“A bargain…as much as I might like that idea, I’m afraid I'm not in a position to offer you anything in trade.”
“You could tell me what I want to know.”
“Alexander, if I could I would. I can’t.”
“No. You can, but you’re choosing to be arrested and detained in Austria. For you that is the lesser evil.”
Damn it, damn it. He was too fucking smart.
“I assure you I have no burning desire to be arrested, either in Austria or elsewhere.” Alena attempted a laugh, but it was hollow.
He smiled, a cruel, cold expression. “The bargain. You remain in my custody for three weeks.”
That wasn’t what she’d expected. “Why?”
“In that time either my people will have discovered who you stole for, and what they are planning.”
“Or?”
“Or I will let you go.”
“You mean you’ll have me arrested.”
“No. I return your passport and you leave.”
Alena studied his face, trying to see through the mask he wore. “I have questions.”
“Unlike you, I will answer them.”
“A fair point, though I did answer every question I could.”
“Once you knew you were caught.”
“Well yes, that’s usually how it happens.” Again she almost got him to smile, and something inside her relaxed and loosened.
“Your questions,” he demanded.
“First of all, if I don’t accept your bargain, what happens?”
“You are turned over to the Gendarmerie.”
“The…what?” The German police were Bundespolizei or BPOL. Had he mistranslated or forgotten the word for police? Now that she thought about it she was fairly sure he’d meant gendarmerie as in Gendarmerie Nationale—the French police force that was a branch of that country’s military. But he’d pronounced it wrong. With harder consonants and longer vowel sounds than French.
“The gendarmerie?” She said with purposeful disinterest. If he turned her into the French police life would be a little more complicated, but not impossible.
“Not the French Gendarmerie Nationale. The Serbian Gendarmery. Formerly the Serbian PJP.”
Alena’s whole body went cold. She had no connections in Serbia. They weren’t in the EU yet.
If he turned her over to the Serbian police, she was in serious trouble.
“If I don’t take your three week bargain, I end up in custody in Belgrade.”
“Wagner’s second largest facility is there. I will report the break in and data theft as happening in that country.”
Alena met Alexander’s eyes. He had her over a barrel…and he knew it.
“Three weeks, and I walk, even if you haven’t figured out what I was doing?”
“Correct.”
If she were naive, she would say that this was his way of protecting her. He was giving her an opportunity to walk away from this with no repercussions.
She wasn't that naïve.
“Where exactly will I be during the three weeks?”
“With me.”
Alexander had leaned forward, and his mask had slipped. She could see the anger in the set of his brows, and a sort of menacing satisfaction in the way his lip was curled in a sneer.
He was waiting for her to ask the right question. This was a trap, but she couldn’t see the shape of it yet.
“And where will you be for those weeks?”
Alexander’s sneer grew into a cold smile. “Beleu Lake.”
“Your villa in Moldova.”
That surprised him for a moment, and he sat back. In the next moment, his hand fisted and he looked away.
“Would you rather I pretend that I hadn’t researched you? Pretend I’m just some woman you met at the club?”
“No.”
When he faced her once more the cruel smile was back. There was something he hadn’t said yet, a catch to this “bargain.”
She wanted to demand he just tell her, but that wasn’t…
That wasn’t how the game was played.
She forced herself to relax. To assess her opponent. Chess wasn’t a good metaphor for the game she and Alexander were playing because the board was far from level. This was poker, and she’d been dealt a very bad had.
The only chip she had to wager was herself. Information wasn’t something she could risk betting.
“What’s at your house in Moldova?” she asked.
“Ah.” His smile of satisfaction was chilling. “I only indulge my sexual predilections two places. At Orchid Club events, and at my home in Moldova.”
Alena had a sinking feeling. “You’re going to Moldova… Taking me to Moldova… So you’ll have access to a BDSM dungeon?”
“Precisely.” Alexander leaned towards her, so close that she could feel the puff of his breath when he next spoke. “You will spend those three weeks as my BDSM slave.”
Chapter 4
Alexander rose from behind his desk, and Eva Kessler, his VP of logistics and security, rose too.
“Alexander.” Eva inclined her head, her expression pinched.
Despite it only now being dawn, when she’d arrived hours ago in the full darkness of night, she’d looked poised and capable to handle any crisis.
Fischer had briefed her, as Eva had arrived while he’d been offering Alena her bargain.
Alena’s expression—shock tinged with feminine awareness—was something he would look back on and savor. What he hadn’t seen in her expression, what might have changed his mind, was fear.
The moment he’d exited the conference room, the guards had slipped back in. Eva had started peppering him with questions. Fischer had warned him about how dangerous it had been to lock himself in with her.
One hard look had silenced everyone, and he’d brought Eva to his office to answer her questions. He’d told her more than he told Fischer, including that he’d met Alena at a private club, and though he’d thought his membership was a well-kept secret, apparently it was not. He hadn’t outright said he’d slept with her, but the implication was there. When he’d informed Eva that Alena had been given a guest room, Eva had stuck her head out of the office and ordered two men to go and search Alena’s room and her belongings.
Their discussion had continued until darkness gave way to dawn, and there was no more to say, at least not until they had some answers.
Alexander held his office door open, motioning for Eva to precede him. The Wagner Global Director of Systems Administration who reported to Eva was waiting in the hall. She took him aside and began speaking rapidly. The man made a pained noise—he did not have Eva’s stoicism, and all but bolted for the server room and the empty office where the techs were still working on Alena’s device.
Eva looked at Alexander. “When will you know what the criminal wants to do?”
The criminal.
He wondered if Eva had picked that term as a way of reminding him that the bargain he’d proposed might involve releasing, without punishment, the perpetrator of a very serious and potentially catastrophic attack on his company.
He and Eva had agreed that if either RTW or their in-house people found any evidence of a terrorism connection, it would change everything. His word was not worth more than the lives that would be lost if the information Alena had stolen was used to attack supply lines.
“Now,” he replied as he headed for the conference room.
Fischer was standing guard at the door, and as Alexander approached, he opened it.
“Sir, I’d like my men to stay while you—”
“No.”
“Sir, we cannot—”
“I will not lock the door.”
Fischer nodded, and, still holding the door open, ordered his men out.
Alena looked more composed than she had the last time he’d se
en her. Her hair was smooth, one side tucked behind her ear. The bands securing her wrists to the arms of the chair were a different color. They must have released her either to search her again or possibly to take her to the bathroom.
The vulnerable shock he’d seen when he told her exactly what he would expect of her during the proposed three weeks wasn’t evident now. She was once more confident and regal, with a slight smile playing around her lips. An enigmatic smile paired with a sense that anyone who befriended her, pleased her, just might get to find out the secret behind that smile.
She was the kind of person who made friends easily. Who never felt out of place.
Was that why he’d been so drawn to her? Because she radiated ease and confidence, a sense that the world would bow to her? In another time she would have made a formidable ruler. He could picture her as Catherine the Great—disposing of a useless emperor by organizing a nearly bloodless coup d’état.
“Alexander,” she inclined her head, as if granting him an audience.
He could, very easily, remind her that she was not sitting on a throne listening to supplicants. She was a prisoner with no good choices.
“Your decision?”
“Oh yes. Your ‘bargain’. I can choose between an uncertain fate at the hands of the Serbian police, or three weeks of rape and torture with you.”
Alexander fell back a step, her words hitting him like a physical blow. “I would not… I would not…”
“Which one will you not do?” She cocked her head as if merely puzzled. “No rape or no torture?”
“I would never rape a woman.”
“Ah, so it’s to be torture then.”
Stop. Think. Then talk. “You enjoyed my torture the past three nights. Or was that an act?”
She sighed and seemed to sink into the chair. “I told you the truth before, when I said what happened between us when we were playing was real.”
He wanted to believe her, which was exactly why he shouldn’t. “How did you become a member?”
“Of the Orchid Club? I didn’t lie about my personal experience, if that’s what you’re asking. I was active in the lifestyle for several years, until I discovered other outlets for my needs.”