a heads up that he was coming to town? Or was this something regarding the two of us?
I was about to demand that we talk about it now, because fuck waiting, when my cell phone rang from inside my suit jacket. Biting back my irritation at the interruption, I stomped over and snatched up the device.
Ace.
“Yeah?”
“Go somewhere where Lexi can’t hear you.”
My spine shot straight at his ominous words. His tone was foreboding, indicating there was a slew of bad news barreling down on me fast.
Goddammit, I don’t want to hear this.
Casting a final glance at Lexi, who was scooping food onto two plates with her back to me, I walked down the hall and closed myself inside my soundproofed office.
“All right. What’s going on? What’d you find?”
“Nothing you’re going to like. Check your email. I just sent you some footage you need to watch.”
I walked to my desk and opened my laptop. “From Kozlov’s compound and Esposito’s escape?”
“Not exactly,” he hedged. “After Luka voiced his concerns about Lexi’s involvement a few weeks ago, I decided to do a little digging, just to rule out those suspicions.”
“Ace…” I said in warning.
I thought I’d already established that no one in my family was to go down that road. Not unless they wanted their face smashed to a bloody pulp.
“I found something, Nico.”
All my internal organs ceased functioning. At least, that’s what it felt like.
“Tell me.”
He sighed. “It’s something you have to see. Download the video I sent.”
I immediately clicked on the most recent email that popped up in my inbox, the one with a large file attached.
“I ran some facial recognition software through the city’s CCTV camera database,” he explained. “Just to track Lexi’s movements and make sure nothing suspicious was going on. Believe me, I didn’t want to, man. I didn’t actually think I’d find anything. Just thought this would help clear up any doubts.”
Already, I was feeling sick to my stomach.
Finally, the video loaded and automatically started playing. The black and white footage that appeared on the screen was only slightly grainy, so you could still see plenty of detail. The angle of the camera displayed a row of brownstones with cars driving by and parked along curbs.
Mom and Dad’s street.
Moments later, Lexi exited my parents’ house and walked down the front stoop, phone to her ear. She was glancing in all directions, as if looking for someone. Or making sure she wasn’t being followed? In the footage, she walked down the street a bit and waited at the front of an alley, pacing back and forth.
A man appeared in the frame. A big man.
A big man who walked right to her with purpose. And familiarity.
He was dressed mostly in black with a hood covering his head. In profile, I couldn’t see his face, but it definitely wasn’t Sergei. This guy was taller than Lexi’s father and moved like he was much younger. I zoomed in as far as I could, but it still wasn’t close enough to see his face.
Their conversation looked heated.
Lexi appeared frantic, almost panicky, her hand gestures jerky and insistent. Whatever she was saying, the man didn’t seem to like it. And whatever he responded back seemed to make her nervous. Whoever this person was, it was obvious they knew each other.
Two questions in my head demanded answers:
What the hell were they discussing that was so important they had to do it in secret?
Who the fuck was this man to her? Why was she meeting with him behind my back? Had she had a lover when we met that she’d never told me about?
Impossible.
I would have known, would have been able to tell.
At one point, the man looked over his shoulder at something across the street. It was a flash of movement that I would have missed if I’d blinked. But it was long enough for me to clearly make out the man’s face and confirm his identity.
“Fucking shit.”
Dimitri. Goddamn. Novikoff.
That cocksucker who’d looked at Lexi like he had some kind of claim on her—like she was his. The man I’d grilled her about, whom she insisted she’d never been more than childhood friends with. But it had been painfully obvious it was more than just childhood friendship or platonic intimacy for him. He wanted Lexi.
So, why in the motherfucking hell was he in this country, having covert meetings in back alleys with my wife?
“I assume this guy has connections to Sergei?” Ace asked, breaking through my homicidal thoughts.