My blood runs cold. "What? That was Katya?"
"Yes." He smiles, casual, as if he didn’t end up with a bullet in his stomach because of it. "So was your kidnapping."
I bolt upright. "You’re not serious."
"Katya looks harmless, but she’s far deadlier than you think, Claire."
My mind races. "So she staged my kidnapping, for what?" Then it clicks. She wanted Aleksei to swoop in, to play savior, so I’d go crazy with jealousy and leave him. Which I did.
I groan, burying my face in my hands. Everything starts sliding into place.
"But you could have warned me instead of leaving me to suffer. I would have played along." I smack his shoulder, hard. "Don’t tell me you thought I couldn’t act jealous."
He is f*****g grinning, shameless. "There’s that." He shrugs and I hit him again for being so ca
