Novikoff. He’s Sergei’s righthand man, enforcer, head of security and all that shit. Been with him since he was young, according to Lexi. They’ve known each other since they were kids.”
“Then what the fuck is he doing in Brooklyn and not guarding his boss?”
Good question. The way I saw it—
“There’s only two plausible explanations,” I said woodenly. “Either Sergei is in deep hiding and not in immediate danger. Or—”
“He’s close by,” Ace finished. “Close enough that Dimitri could still watch his back. And if Sergei’s in the city, then it’s highly likely he was behind Esposito’s breakout.”
I was shaking my head in denial, even though Ace couldn’t see it. “Stop.” It came out as a plea.
This couldn’t be the truth. There was no way.
“Why else would Dimitri be here?” Ace pushed. “There’s no reason for him to be. There’s only one explanation for why he’d be keeping his presence here a secret. And why Sergei coerced you into marrying Lexi.”
I pulled at my hair. “Ace, I’m begging you—”
“Sergei planted her, man. Used her to feed Dimitri information about us and what we know, so that he could pass it on to Raphael.”
“That doesn’t make any sense!” I yelled down the line. “I don’t discuss any of this shit with her. I haven’t involved her in anything!”
“The point of making her your wife was probably so that you didn’t have to say anything. She lives in your house, Nico. She could learn a hell of a lot if she had access to your stuff and knew what she was doing. Even rudimentary hacking skills would get the job done.”
“She wouldn’t—” I cut myself off as her words from a few weeks ago came back to me.
I know you’ve invested in stocks for your parents that no one, not even Cris, knows about. I saw documents on the desk in your office.
Had she been snooping around? Relaying what she’d learned to Dimitri, who’d then passed it on to Sergei and finally, to Raphael?
Jesus. It was like fucking mafia telephone.
“How would giving Raphael information about us help them?” Conflicted thoughts warred with confusion. “What’s their plan? If they’re just trying to join forces with Esposito and form an alliance, what the hell does that have to do with our family?”
“Sergei needed money, and Raphael needed out of prison, as well as information on us,” Ace replied. “You scratch my back, I scratch yours. Could just be that simple. Either way, there’s no doubt Lexi has had communication with this Dimitri guy. Communication that she doesn’t want anyone else to know about.”
And she’d actually met with that bastard right outside of my own family’s home.
Right then, the footage changed to another camera feed in a different area of Brooklyn. This street was busier with more businesses, more traffic, and more people scurrying about.
Lexi walked out of the drugstore on the left-hand side of the screen, plastic bag in hand. She dug her keys out of her purse and headed toward my Audi that she’d been borrowing. Then, sure enough, Dimitri came up behind her, clearly startling her. He had that hood up again, concealing his face, but I easily recognized him this time. Same frame, same build.
“Look at the date stamp on that one,” Ace said sympathetically.
My gaze swung to the numbers in the lower right-hand corner.
Today.
11:13 am.
It would have been right around the time she headed over to the children’s center where she’d been volunteering with Mom.
She’d spoken to Dimitri today.
Then she came back to my house and made me dinner.
And then she let me fuck her on my own kitchen counter.
Je-sus.
In this footage, Lexi looked noticeably agitated by Dimitri’s presence. Shaking her head a lot, crossing her arms, throwing her hand up in his face.
Then his hand shot out and wrapped around her arm.
Ridiculous.
Even now my fists clenched so hard that my knuckles turned white. I wanted to lay that motherfucker out for touching her, even though she’d been going behind my back. She’d been lying to me this entire time, and I still didn’t want to see another man’s hands on her.
My dick clearly couldn’t see reason.
Well, maybe if you’d been thinking with the right head…
I was actually feeling more upset over the prospect of her sleeping with another man—of her cheating on me—than over her actual betrayal.
So fucking ridiculous.
She yanked her arm out of his grip and said something that knocked him back a step. After a exchanging a few more words, she turned and rushed to the car, got