questions assaulting my mind, I picked up the device and hit play on the video that was already uploaded on the screen.
I nearly dropped it.
It was some kind of security camera footage that was recording on the opposite side of the street from Val and Enzo’s house. Right there, in the center of the screen, was my face.
And Dimitri’s.
My ragged breaths became horridly loud in my ears as I watched the two of us talk in the alley. Then it switched to another video, this one of us speaking on the sidewalk, right outside the drugstore. Earlier today.
I placed the phone facedown on the table, like a cursed object. “Okay, I know how this looks. But you have to believe me when I say, it’s not what you think.”
I hated how clichéd those words sounded, but I didn’t know how else to phrase it.
Nico continued like I hadn’t even spoken. “Was I your first mark?” His snide, hateful voice crawled over my skin. “I’d find that hard to believe. You played your part too much like a pro. No, I’m thinking you’ve done this many times. How does the scheme go exactly? You hook up with a guy, get close to him, and report back to your father with all of his secrets? Maybe swindle him out of some money while you’re at it?”
“What?” I shook my head. “I’m not following.”
What the bloody hell was he accusing me of?
“How much is Raphael paying you three?” He crossed his arms over his chest and glowered. “I mean, other than the ten million for the prison break.”
Trying to find my way through the ragged weeds of whatever backwards information he’d been told was proving difficult. He was weaving a tapestry of absurd accusations, and I was struggling mightily to unravel it.
“Are you saying you think my father and I have been running some sort of scam on you?”
“Don’t forget your boyfriend Dimitri. And I don’t think anything when the evidence is right in front of me.” His eyes flicked down to the phone before lifting back up to mine. “You did tell me you would do anything for Sergei, didn’t you? I guess I should have heard that for what it was…a warning.”
“Nico, I haven’t spoken to my father since the day we left Russia.” I kept my tone placating without sounding patronizing. “When he goes into spyachka, I know not to attempt to contact him. He always comes for me when it’s safe again.”
His eyes narrowed to slits. “Why would you need to contact him when he’s been keeping in touch with you this entire time through his little lackey?”
I sucked in a steadying breath. “Listen, Dimitri showed up out of the blue one day, saying my father had asked him to watch over me while I was in the States. I had no idea he was going to be here—my father never said a word about it. I know I should have told you—”
“Then why did Raphael Esposito pay your father to help him break out of prison?” he shouted. “Huh? Tell me that.”
My jaw dropped. “That’s not true. My father would never team up with the New York Firm. He despises them.”
Nico snorted, the sound dripping with derision. “Is that what he coached you to say? You know, I think you missed your calling. That clueless routine has been pretty convincing. You should have ditched the modeling and gone straight into acting. You’d have made a fortune.”
Panic was rising in my chest. “I don’t know anything about Raphael’s escape, but I swear to you that my father would never help him. And I didn’t tell you about Dimitri because I knew you didn’t trust him. He doesn’t trust you either. He was only following my father’s orders by looking after my safety until the situation in Russia is resolved.”
If possible, Nico’s face became mottled with even more fury. “I’m sure that’s not the only thing he’s been looking after.”
He stepped toward me.
I immediately backed up. He’d never looked at me like that before. Like I was some kind of soulless she-demon.
“Are you fucking him, Lexi?”
That brought me up short as a surge of outrage fueled my blood. “No! I told you, there’s never been anything between me and Dimitri.”
Another step toward me. “Why did Raphael’s money go into an offshore account that was under an alias your father has been known to use? Tell. Me. Why.”
“I don’t know! My father has never involved me in syndicate business. But Sergei