“Oh yeah? What do you do when you have a few days off?”
“I usually visit my family in Russia. My aunts overfeed me.” He thought about how there was usually some mess to clean up regarding his Uncle Sergei, who still liked to use violence to solve both his business and personal problems. Often bridges had to be mended and certain officials paid off to look the other way. But to Eva, he said, “And I pay my respects to my uncle, who is semi-retired now but still involved with a few of our divisions.”
Her grip on his hand tightened and he felt her stiffen against his arm. “Are you all right?”
She let go of his hand and shook her arms out. “Yeah, I sure am. But I think my arms might still be a little stiff from windsurfing. Who knew it would require so much upper-body strength?”
They arrived at the elevators, and Alexei resisted the temptation to take her hand back, chastising himself for even having such desires.
“Um, your semi-retired uncle in Russia….is this the same uncle you used to get in arguments with every week back when we were at UTD?” she asked.
“You have a good memory.” As they stepped into the elevator he settled his arm around her shoulders, and tried not to think too hard about the fact that he had only made it a few seconds before needing to touch her again. “Yes, this is the same uncle, but we do not argue anymore. We are for the most part on the same page.”
“Oh, that’s nice,” she said. But again it felt like she had gone stiff beneath his arm.
Perhaps she could sense what he’d just said about his uncle and he being on the same page wasn’t fully true. He didn’t bother arguing with his uncle anymore, just let the older man do as he pleased and cleaned up the mess afterwards. Though, he couldn’t say he wasn’t annoyed by the fact that Sergei had called three times in the last two weeks to suggest Russian oil companies they might want to invest in. He’d humored him and given the names to Emilio to research, but as he suspected, all the companies were either owned or managed by ex-Russian criminals, who had not done nearly as much to clean up their act as Alexei had. After Eva left on Sunday, he’d have to call his uncle and make him understand once and for all that despite his Drummond Oil purchase, Rustanov Enterprises would not be getting involved in oil on the Russian end.
But right now, he was more concerned with the woman who was holding herself rigid underneath his arm.
“You are not okay,” he said, sensing it even if she would not admit it.
She gave him a smile he could tell was forced. “Okay, you got me. I’m a little cold, but I didn’t want to complain about it since I’ll be changing soon.”
No, that wasn’t it. He could tell she was lying to him, but he also had a feeling he didn’t want to know what was really bothering her—especially if it had anything to do with the boyfriend waiting for her at home.
She nuzzled into his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist, saying, “I’m just going to take advantage of some of this heat you’re kicking off if you don’t mind.”
“I do not mind,” he said. He didn’t mind at all. And that was the problem.
“Just got the beach photos from your guy and sent them on to the publicist,” Emilio said, when Alexei came down to meet with him in the suite he was occupying a few floors below his own. “She said that should be enough for the feature, so you don’t have to worry about showing off in public anymore.”
A twinge of sadness on Alexei’s part greeted that statement. As much as he hated to admit it, these past ten days with Eva had been the best he’d had since their break-up. He’d liked pretending to just go along with her outside plans in crowded places, when really he’d known she was making it easier for the photog to get pictures of them together. And though he’d never been a fan of PDA, he’d welcomed the excuse to kiss and hold Eva close for seemingly no reason.
“I will keep acting in this manner, just so she does not get suspicious.”
Emilio raised his eyebrows. “Oh, I doubt she’ll suspect you’ve been doing all this stuff in public with her, just to expose her to her boyfriend back home.”
Yet again, shame came creeping in. Though, he kept on telling himself that he was doing this to make sure he won the war with Eva, guilt had been dogging him for the last few days. The more she told him about Drummond and her life there, the shittier he felt about the fact that her reputation would probably going down in flames with her relationship, because of what he planned to do.
“You okay, man?” Emilio asked him. “You got quiet there all of a sudden. You sure you don’t want me to just look into this boyfriend of hers? It’d be way less convoluted than this plan, and maybe we could come up with something that would sit better with Eva.”
Alexei shoved his hands into the pockets of the linen suit he’d changed into for dinner. “Why should I care what sits better with Eva? This is revenge.”
“Yeah, that’s what you keep on saying,” Emilio said. He made a big deal of straightening out the contracts he’d set out for Alexei to sign, “But usually true revenge doesn’t involve signing an oil company over to a girl and then breaking up her relationship.”
“My intention is to destroy her relationship, not her reputation. This will ensure that she’s not shunned by the town of Drummond.” He paraphrased what Eva had told him. “Small towns are not like big cities.”
“Again, revenge usually doesn’t entail protecting the reputation of the person you’re getting back at.”
Alexei ignored him and skimmed over a copy of the contract. “This looks like it is all in order. I will let her know tonight. You can bring the papers up tomorrow morning and we will sign them then.”
Emilio just shrugged, not saying anything.
And Alexei slammed the contract back on the table, more irritated by Emilio’s unspoken judgment than he cared to admit. “By giving her Drummond Oil she will always know it is I who holds all the power where she is concerned and I who chooses how to wield it. Also, it will make it so she does not see my ultimate revenge coming.”
“That’s very romantic,” Emilio said.
“I am not wishing to be romantic. This is about revenge.”
Emilio screwed his face up and looked at the ceiling. “Okay, Lex. I want to be straight with you about a couple of things, but I need you to promise not to fire me first.”