Chapter Nine
Alex could think of a thousand places he would rather be right now. Unfortunately, he had no choice in the matter. By the time the limo pulled up in front of the hotel, there was a second long, black car just pulling up beneath the portico of the Trump Tower Hotel. Alex barely had time to exit his car before Tatiyana Nicolaevna’s long slim legs appeared through the second car’s open back door. Seconds later, his mother was on the sidewalk and stalking toward him with a very angry expression on her face.
“How nice of you to meet me, Alexei,” she said pointedly and in English. “At least I presume that is the only reason you are standing outside at this time of night.”
Alex could not resist needling his mother just a little bit. It was a crime he would likely pay dearly for later, but for now it was gratifying.
Since she’d started the conversation in English, he continued it. “Actually, I was just getting back to the hotel after a nice night out.”
“Excuse me?” Tatiyana’s icy glare could have kick started another ice age in Siberia. She switched to Russian. “You cannot act the part of a lowly commoner, Alexei. I do not understand this bizarre behavior! What is wrong with you?”
“What is wrong with me?” He took a breath to answer then stopped himself.
He turned and walked away. There was no point in speaking. Anything he said would only make his mother more angry, and it would make things more difficult for him when it came time to let her know that he was going to handle this baby situation in whatever way he deemed fit.
She was right behind him. He could hear her. Failing that, he would have been able to smell her. The perfume she wore was so pervasive it seemed to coat his tongue and the back of his throat. It invoked unpleasant memories from his childhood despite his resolution to stick to his plan. Somehow whenever Tatiyana was around he was immediately transported to the nursery where he could never make his mother happy. No matter how hard he worked at his lessons, she could always find fault with his manners or in the way he walked or spoke to others. It was as if she had been grooming him for political power from the cradle, which she had been. The thought was sobering.
The next thing that went through his mind was a resolution not to treat his own son that way.
He had a chance to make certain that his child knew he was loved and valued no matter if he remembered which dinner fork to use first, or how to bow to a grand duke.
The elevator door whooshed shut behind them, and Alex was alone with Tatiyana for the miniscule amount of time it would take them to reach the hotel’s top floor.
He gave his mother a cool once over. “I assume Yuri contacted you to whine about something not to his liking. I told you that bringing him along on this trip would be a pointless endeavor.”
“Pointless?” She snorted. “Hardly. The man has proved an invaluable resource for information about your repetitious idiocy.”
“Is that right,” Alex murmured. He was not agreeing with his mother’s opinion. He just wasn’t going to disagree openly with her. There was no point. Not yet anyway.
“It continually baffles me that I have reached twenty-seven years of age, and yet you believe I need a babysitter.” Alex examined his nails. He layered his attitude around him like armor and prepared for the worst.
Tatiyana’s scowl seemed to defy the Botox industry. “I only want what’s best for you, Alexei. Why have you never understood that? This is your birthright! It’s your destiny to rule on the throne of your ancestors.”
“No.” Alex sighed. He had said this over and over with little to no result. No positive result anyway. “There is no throne in Russia, Mother. There has not been a throne since Nicolai Romanov was deposed and executed.”
“Your people need you, Alexei!” his mother insisted. “They need a strong man to rule, not some woman who cannot find time to decide anything more important than what jewels will go with what dress.”
“I happen to like my cousin Maria,” Alexei said mildly. “She and I both agree that Russia is on the correct path for now.”
“For now!” Tatiyana burst out.
The doors opened just then, and Alex strode out of the elevator’s stifling atmosphere into an even worse morass of irritation in his hotel suite where Yuri waited. Alex glowered at his cousin and wondered if the man even realized just how angry Alex was with him.
“What did you tell her?” Alex demanded of Yuri. “How much did you overhear, how much did you make up, and what did you throw in to add fuel to the fire?”
“So dramatic!” Tatiyana said as she walked in behind Alex. “Yuri has told me of your little whore.”
“Excuse me?” Alex swung around to face his mother. “My whore, you say?”
“It is unfortunate, of course, but easily remedied.” Tatiyana pulled out her phone and began texting with a clickety-clack from her long, blood red nails. “In fact, I’m having that woman brought here right now so we can deal with this and be done.”
Alex was almost speechless with a combination of rage and disgust. He turned on Yuri. “You cannot have her brought here now! It’s the middle of the night! She’s not some peasant for you to drag around the city at all hours dependent upon your whim. She’s a woman with a life who needs her rest!”
Tatiyana’s derisive snort said it all. Maddie was on her way to the Trump Tower Hotel, and there would be no gainsaying either Yuri or his mother when it came to their wants and desires.
***
MADDIE WAS GOOD and pissed off, and she knew exactly who to blame for her current predicament. Any other woman might have been angry at the man who had rolled out of her bed half an hour ago and disappeared into the night with a vague story about having to meet his mother. But Maddie wasn’t any other woman. She knew there was no way in hell the prim and proper Alex would have dragged her out of her bed in the middle of the night. Nope. Maddie was pretty damn certain that her current state of affairs was because of a woman who was bound and determined to make herself royalty.
The black suited man sitting next to her in the limo didn’t speak. He hadn’t said a word since he’d insisted that she was coming with him. Maddie had even suggested to him that her next phone call would be to the cops. The guy had just told her that he had diplomatic immunity, and unless she wanted the state department involved, she should cooperate. That had at least intimidated her a bit. But the more she thought about it, the more she believed the entire thing was a racket. Someone was lying, and Maddie was going to find out who.
Her silent companion finally broke radio silence to mutter into his phone. “We’ve arrived.”
“So you do say something other than ‘do what I say or die,’” Maddie snapped.
The guy didn’t respond. He waited for the limo to pull up beneath the arched entryway to the Trump Tower Hotel. Then just about as quickly as was safe, the man opened the door and got out.
He didn’t actually offer to help Maddie out of the car. No. He stuck his hand back in, clamped onto her arm, and dragged her to the sidewalk. He was muttering to another man who had apparently been riding up in the front seat. The two of them were talking Russian, looking at her, and then laughing. It was as if her earlier nightmare was coming true. Nice.
Maddie jerked her arm away from Hekyll and gave Jekyll a dirty look. Hekyll just grabbed her arm again and began dragging her into the hotel. She planted her feet and forced him to stop walking.
“Hey!” she snarled. “I’m perfectly capable of walking on my own. Thanks. Let go, or I’ll start screaming. And this is America, asshole. If I start screaming my head off in a public place and claiming I’ve been kidnapped, you’re going to have some issues.” She made an ugly face at him. “Diplomatic immunity or not.”
He muttered something that did not sound complimentary and then stomped inside with her walking behind him. She followed him to the elevator, and he punched the button for the top floor.
It was a long ride up mostly because her companion didn’t say anything audible and kept up a running tirade beneath his breath. Maddie really wanted to deck him. The guy was a dick. Although at this point anyone who came within punching distance was probably going to get it.
The doors whooshed open, and Maddie followed her escort’s lead. The suite was gorgeous, but she’d been there before. The night her baby had been conceived, she had come here with Alex after the club closed. Tonight it felt a little different.
The first thing she saw was a tall woman with long legs and impeccable taste and style. She had Alex’s dark complexion and his piercing dark eyes. But where Alex always seemed to be brooding, this woman looked mean as hell. Her expression was pinched. She stood in the center of the room with her hands on her narrow hips. Maddie knew without asking that this was Alex’s mother.
“So this is your American whore?” the woman said in heavily accented English. “I cannot even see the attraction! She is fat!”
Maddie raised her eyebrows. Oh hell no! Nobody talked to Madison Castillo that way! “And you must be Alex’s mother. I knew you were a bitch of epic proportions, but I must say the descriptions of you on the Internet do not do you justice at all! Perhaps you should eat. Starving to death is bound to make someone grouchy.”
The mother—Maddie remembered that her name was Tatiyana something—made a high pitched sound of outrage.
“Are you going to allow this woman to disrespect me?” she shouted at Alex.
Maddie turned, meeting Alex’s gaze and seeing something there that she had never expected. Fire. There was fire and determination in his eyes. What was he planning?
“Actually, Mother,” Alex began in a painfully formal tone of voice. “I believe the complete breach of protocol was on your part. You were the one who dragged Madison here against her will. I would imagine anything she wishes to dish out would be just punishment for your rudeness.”
“Excuse me?” His mother whipped around to stare, obviously shocked.
“You heard me.” Alex gave a nonchalant shrug. “I intimated that you are being unforgivably rude to this young woman and reminded you that your behavior has only antagonized a woman who is well known for being forthright and very difficult to intimidate.” Alex gave a strangely inelegant snort. “One might say—in the American vernacular—that you have poked the bear.”
“Enough!” Tatiyana shouted. She raised both hands to command their attention. “You will pay off this whore right now. I want the child taken care of. There should be no bastards around to challenge for the succession.”
Maddie felt her blood begin to boil. “So you want me to murder my child because you want to protect your imaginary claim to a throne that doesn’t exist?”
“Yes,” Alex agreed. “That seems to be exactly what she’s suggesting. I, however, have an alternate plan.”
“Which would be?” Maddie raised her eyebrows.
“Come to my vacation home with me.” He waved a hand at his cousin and his mother. “We can be rid of their interference and have a chance to spend some time together. Then we can better decide what to do in order to make sure our baby is well provided for.”
Maddie was shocked, really and truly shocked. “Seriously?”
“Will you, please?”
There was absolutely no way or reason to turn him down. “Yes! When do we leave?”