Ultimate Vengeance (Wanted Men Book 4) (21 page)

She patted her belly, looking proud. And ill.

“Are you okay, Eva? You had a busy day today.”

“I’m good.” She pinned a smile and animatedly gave him the short version of her day.

Call him a dick, but he couldn’t help but think she’d overdone things. No wonder G kept glaring at her.

As inconspicuously as he could, he danced them through the crowd. By the time they were a few feet away from Gabriel, Alek could clearly see a sheen of sweat on Eva’s forehead, and she had a steady tremble running through her limbs. He locked eyes with her husband and gave him a severe frown as he tipped his chin down at Eva. Gabriel was beside them before he could blink.

“All done?” he said, gently extracting her.

“Yes.” Eva moved straight into her husband’s embrace. She appeared almost intoxicated. “I think he’s good now.”

“Hey, did you drink the juice I brought you earlier? Or eat the fruit Jak left at the table?” Jak pulled a chair over so Gabriel could place her in it. They were against the wall, so at least they were out of the way of any foot-traffic. G squatted in front of her and bobbed his head to hold her swinging gaze.

She was taking those deep breaths again. “Forgot. I think— Uh, I had— Dunno. I feel weak,” she murmured, her voice faint. “And shaky. Really shaky. I hate this.”

As a few people craned their necks to watch, Quan disappeared with a quiet curse. Alek felt alarmingly clueless until he heard Gabriel’s next question.

“Did you bring your glucose meter? Eva? Did you remember to bring it?”

Before she could answer, Quan was back with a small black evening purse and a tall glass of orange juice. He shoved the bag at Gabriel and carefully took Eva’s hand to curl her fingers around the glass. He held it with her because the shake in her arm would have had the liquid sloshing over the rim. She took a drink.

“Another,” Quan directed as Gabriel withdrew the needed supplies from Eva’s purse and pricked the pad of her pinkie on her free hand.

She had more juice. “I can do that, Gabriel. Just give me a second to get my head on right.”

“Is everything okay, sir?”

Quan looked up at the older woman when she was ignored by everyone else. She was dressed the same as the other staff but had a nametag that marked her as a manager.

“Her sugar is low. She’ll be fine in a few minutes. Thanks for your concern.”

“Jesus Christ.”
Gabriel raised his head from reading the monitor, his eyes clouded with fear and anger. The manager left without another word, as did the few people who’d been trying to see around the wall of muscle surrounding the patient. Guess diabetes wasn’t interesting enough to linger over. Or maybe it was Gabriel’s attitude that caused them to scatter. He was glaring at his wife as he tapped the juice glass for Quan to raise it again. He put the meter back into her bag.

“Three-point-eight, Eva?” he gritted out, his jaw set and locked. “You can consider this your notice. You’ve just been locked out of your office until we get a fucking handle on this.” He muttered a few curses under his breath, switching to Italian, but despite his upset, his big hand was nothing but tender as it stroked the side of her belly.

“I think you must be rubbing off on him.” In direct contrast to Gabriel’s, Quan’s tone was soothing as he tipped the glass at her lips again. “If you weren’t loopy, you might even be proud of him because his reaction is dialed way down. One more. That’s a girl.” Eva didn’t seem to be paying any attention to him—her loosely focused eyes were on Gabriel. “Though I suppose we shouldn’t praise him until we make it to the car and all the witnesses have disappeared, hmm? All done. Good girl.” He placed the empty glass on the table and looked at the Patek Philippe on his wrist. “Couple more minutes and you’ll be good as new.”

“Move it, Nurse Betty,” Gabriel grumbled as he rose and rather affectionately elbowed Quan out of the way. He leaned in, and without much effort, lifted his wife from the chair. He curled her into his chest, and if there was anything that would have proven Eva wasn’t herself, it was her allowing her husband to carry her out of a room filled with women she dealt with on a professional level every day. She didn’t make a peep. She simply laid her head on that block of a shoulder and closed her eyes—trusting she’d be cared for. It was a beautiful sight.

“Get us a car,” Gabriel said to Jak, who gave a clipped nod and took off with his phone pressed to his ear.

“No need.” Lucian appeared and waved Jak back before he could get far. “Mine is already at the curb. It can take you where you need to go. What’s wrong?”

Lucian’s regular muscle, a nasty-looking sonofabitch named Sorin was at his back, looking as if an invisible wire connected them. Markus had also come over, and even though all wore identical frowns, Markus’s was that much deeper because he and Eva had grown close over the last six months since they worked together every day.

Gabriel quickly recapped while—imagining Eva was going to come around soon and become self-conscious—Alek waved them toward the exit. He went first, creating a path through the crowd, and they hit the near-empty lobby in no time.

He turned on Gabriel. “What the fuck is this? I had no idea this was happening.” He waved a hand over Eva’s prone body. “Why didn’t either of you share this information? What if you weren’t here?” he whispered fiercely as a couple passed by. “I wouldn’t have had a fucking clue what was wrong with her. Is she on insulin?”

“What the hell happened?” Vasily pushed into the group, bringing with him the sweet scent of cigar.

Gabriel rubbed his jaw on the top of his wife’s dark head. “Sugar,” he said to his father-in-law before responding to Alek. “Yes, she is. We’ll talk tomorrow. I want to get her home.”

“Christ Almighty,” Vasily muttered as he laid his inked hand over his daughter’s forehead. “You’re so much like your mother it’s infuriating.”

Eva smiled shakily, and as though it were meant as a compliment, she murmured, “Thank you.” When she closed her eyes, tears hovered on her lashes.

Alek leaned in and kissed her on her damp temple. Fuck. He was spooked by her uncharacteristic lethargy. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“Sorry.” She didn’t open her eyes. “I’m still trying to get used to having to be more careful.” She was rubbing her belly and seemed to be talking to the baby more than anyone.

Lucian waved forward a guy who was either wearing Kevlar or who spent a lot of time at the gym. “This is Isaac. He will take you. Do not hurry back,” he said to his driver before turning to Alek. “Are you planning on leaving?”

Vasily, who’d been ready to go with his daughter, sent the others off and hung back after hearing the question.

Alek’s nape got tight at the tension that suddenly sat between them all. “No. I have personal business here.”

Lucian nodded once and made a quiet sound that could have meant anything before turning away and disappearing back into the ballroom.

“I’m not privy to the information,” Markus said with his hands upraised when Vasily gave him an inquiring look.

“Why didn’t you tell me she was dealing with this?” Alek demanded, going back to Eva. “Either of you. You obviously knew, if your lack of surprise is anything to go by,” he said to Markus.

“You know Eva, she doesn’t want the attention that comes with it,” Vasily explained.

Markus added, “Gabriel told me—without her knowledge—so that if he wasn’t around at the office, I’d be able to keep an eye on her in case something like this happened. I’ve heard the reminder on her phone go off. She curses worse than her husband because she’s forgotten to stick her finger and fill in the chart her doctor gave her.”

“Her mother was type two.” Vasily was looking into the ballroom, his gaze unfocused. “Since diabetes is genetic, Eva made sure to let her obstetrician know to keep an eye. We’re just hoping it remains gestational because that means it will disappear after she has the baby.”

Alek felt like a dunce because he’d never heard of the condition. But then, why would he be aware of something like that? It wasn’t as if he’d personally known many pregnant women in his lifetime.

“I remember Kathryn used to inject insulin right into a pinched portion of skin on her belly,” Vasily murmured. “She didn’t like it when I told her I’d rather deal with a decapitation than watch her do that.” He had a small smile on his face as he walked away.

“Think they have any idea how it freaks us out when they speak so casually about the unspeakables?” Markus’s hazel eyes were laughing, showing he wasn’t all that bothered.

Alek slapped his boy on the back and led him into the ballroom for another hit of misery. “I’m sure it’s all part of the fun.”

With her head pounding and her limbs still weak from the adrenaline that had filled her after her altercation with Alekzander, Sacha gave up pretending to be unaffected and tapped Justin’s arm.

“I am going to use the restroom,” she whispered as the people around them continued to discuss a Republican senator who’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. All Sacha was getting from the conversation was a craving for Oreos.

“Would you like me to go with you?” Justin looked around. “I lost sight of him.”

“He had a prior engagement,” she muttered, picturing him and the blonde wrapped around each other. “I will not be long.”

She didn’t bother smiling or offering an excuse to the others. She simply drifted away. It was no wonder Justin hadn’t wanted to come alone tonight. Though what her being here did for him she wasn’t sure. Could be he was still faking the boy/girl dating for his father’s sake.

As she walked through the crowd, hearing snatches of conversations here and there, Sacha vowed to watch more CNN. She was out of touch. She and Alekzander used to spend an hour on the paper every day, him speeding to the last page, her going much more slowly as she navigated through unfamiliar words. He’d always been so patient about her constant inquiries. Now, spending her days chatting with babies made it unnecessary for her to follow the depressing things going on in the world. But it also made her uninformed.

As she left the ballroom and traveled down the wide corridor, her heels tapping, a dark shape appeared right in her path. She jerked to a stop just before impact. “Excuse me.” She looked up. “I am sor—”

Alekzander.

“Let’s try this once more, shall we?” He grasped her arm and tugged her back the way she’d come. But instead of going to the main room, he pulled her through a swinging door and down another corridor. This one empty and echoing. She yanked on her arm and protested the entire way, and didn’t even care that a man she remembered as Alekzander’s friend and employee was walking in front of them as if leading the way.

“Let me go! You are such a trouble-maker! Why are you doing this? Why now? I
do not
want to talk to you!”
Especially alone!

Markus opened a door and winked at her as she was taken through. She wanted to slap him for not coming to the aid of a helpless woman. They crossed an empty reception area and aimed for a set of closed double doors made of glass.

“So don’t talk,” Alekzander drawled. “I need to say my piece, and you’re going to listen.”

“I do not want to hear you.”

“Too bad.”

“Let me
go
,” she snarled. “Or I will…I will scream.”

He stopped. “If you do anything to prevent this from happening, I’ll have Maks let loose a virus that will compromise every fucking electronic file Sheppard, Lupin, and Sheppard has in their system. There must be millions.”

She stomped her foot in frustration as he threatened Justin’s firm. “Stop this, you big bully! Why would you do that to him? He has done nothing to you.”

He looked her directly in the eye. “He. Is. With. You.”

If she were a better person, she’d have told him the truth right then. She didn’t because she was mean and hurting, and she wanted him to feel the same pain she felt when he exchanged keys with women Sacha could never hope to compete with. She wanted to hack away at him the way he kept hacking at her.

And at the same time, she didn’t.

She swallowed convulsively to get past the lump rising in her throat. Until this man had come into her life, she’d done okay. Yes, she’d struggled under the weight of her grief after her parents had died, as anyone would, but she’d rallied and began to build a life for herself worlds away from where she’d grown up. She’d been an average, sane person. Now? She felt as if she were a sniveling, mean-spirited puppet, her emotions and physical reactions so easily dictated by a man who’d brutally disrespected her. And there was nothing she could do to prevent it from happening again and again because she would always gravitate toward him. Even now, his appeal was almost impossible to ignore.

“You cannot do something to Justin’s family’s law firm, Alekzander. That is not fair.”

“I can do anything I goddamn please.” His voice was laced with conviction. A new superiority was there, too, and it had a weighty darkness to it she couldn’t help but find disconcerting.

He tipped his head toward the door. “Coming?”

No. But I remember how spectacular it was when we got there together.

She gasped, and he got a clear view of her shock as that stupid thought flitted through her mind.