The Double

I could hear Calahan working a keyboard. “He started out in St. Petersburg, same as Konstantin. It would make sense for them to be rivals. But what the hell would Ralavich be doing in New York? There’s no territory he could take here: Konstantin and the other two bosses have the city all sewn up.”

By now, I’d made my way up to the top floor and right to the end of the west wing. I pushed open a big set of double doors... and gasped. I’d finally found the master bedroom, or rather the master bedroom suite. There was a massive bedroom complete with an Emperor-size bed, separate dressing rooms and bathrooms for Konstantin and me and a sort of lounge area. God, this place was fit for a king and queen. Or maybe a Tsar and his Tsarina.

I’d thought the clothes Christina had brought back from Milan were amazing, but her walk-in wardrobe was something else. One entire wall was devoted to shoes, from elegant, calfskin-leather knee boots to stilettos in every conceivable color. I picked up an amazing pair of midnight-blue kitten heels and sighed. I’m not big on fashion, but even I recognized this as shoe heaven... and none of them would fit. I was going to have to quietly buy some replacements in my size and use those. If Konstantin had a favorite pair he liked to see me in, I was in big trouble.

The clothes were less of a problem. They’d fit, if maybe a bit tightly on the bust. I’d just need to work up the courage to wear them. Christina seemed to like low necklines or high slits, or both. And then there was an entire section devoted to lingerie, each matching set neatly arranged on a hanger together with packs of expensive stockings. Am I really going to wear this...for him?

“How’s it going?” asked Calahan in my ear. “Find anything useful?”

I quickly left the closet and started searching the room. “Got his laptop,” I said. It was on a table next to a vase of flowers and I stared at the scene for a few seconds, my eye for detail kicking in and noting how the laptop was angled and where a few fallen petals had fallen onto it. I powered the machine on but just like Calahan, I was stymied when it asked for a hardware key. Without that, we weren’t getting in.

There was a tiny crack on the landing outside the door. Shit! I powered off the laptop and angled it just how it had been, carefully replacing the fallen petals. I had time to take one step away from the table before—

The door crashed open and Grigory stood there, glaring at me. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing!”

Grigory marched across the room and grabbed me by the upper arms. I felt my insides turn to water. “Stop playing games!” he snapped.

I’d been right: somehow, he knew I was an imposter. I screwed my eyes closed in fear. He was going to tell Konstantin and then the FBI would find my body floating in the harbor—

“Three weeks!” he snapped. “You call him, but not me. And then downstairs, you make me watch the two of you....”

My eyes flew open. What?!

He grabbed my face in both hands. “God, I’ve missed you.”

And then his lips were on mine.

17

Hailey

I WAS SO SHOCKED, I didn’t try to struggle. I just stood there, my face tilted up to him, his thumbs rubbing gently along my cheekbones as he kissed me hard and deep.

Christina was having an affair with him! It exploded in my brain like a firework, lighting up everything else. That’s why he’d been glaring at me, ever since I arrived. He thought I’d been ignoring him.

I was coming to my senses now, but I didn’t dare stop the kiss because I had no idea what I was going to say to him when it ended. Now that I was over the shock, I wanted to strangle Christina. I’d known she was evil, but what sort of psycho bitch sleeps with a notorious crime boss... and then cheats on him, right under his nose? Konstantin would kill both of them, if he found out. And now I’d inherited the problem. He could walk through the door right now and catch us kissing and—

I broke the kiss and stood there panting and wide-eyed. “We can’t! It’s too dangerous!”

He put his hands on my waist. “You started this!” he growled.

I stared at him, incredulous. Christina had only been with Konstantin for four months and she’d already seduced another guy? It made me furious... and weirdly, it wasn’t just because I was going to have to deal with it. It felt wrong. Unfair on Konstantin.

God, was I starting to get protective of him?

I put a hand on Grigory’s chest and pushed him back, trying to ignore how hard his pecs were under his shirt. He was good looking, if you went for slightly older guys. But I had to try to cool this down...without making him suspicious. “It’s too risky, with me just back,” I told him. “Give me time.”