Alexei And Grace

24 | Welcome to the Circus

IN A FLURRY OF TENSE activity, Kristina had everyone sat at the table within five minutes. Alexei's second brother and his girlfriend arrived just as Petrov and Natalia were being ushered into the dining room.

          Leonid's first port of call wasn't to engage in introductions but instead to nervously sweep the room with his eyes. He turned to Kristina. "Is he here?"

          Even to an outsider like me, it was clear that "he" implied Viktor.

          Kristina shook her head once, sharply. "Soon," she said. "Sit down, sit down—"

          Alexei pulled out a chair for me and then sat down beside me. I was too on edge to notice how surprisingly kind that gesture was, but it appeared that everyone felt the same way. Too distracted to pay attention to anything other than the door which stood ajar. Everyone wondering at what moment Viktor Ivanov would push it open.

          To my left was Leo and his girlfriend, while Petrov, Natalia and Kristina sat opposite us. The table was large and oak, set out perfectly with polished silver cutlery and sparkling wine glasses. An obvious space had been left empty at the head of the table. Even looking at it made me feel a deep sense of unease, so I kept my eyes cast down.

          As Leonid's girlfriend stumbled into her seat—it was nice to see i wasn't the only clumsy person here—she leaned closer to me and whispered, "I'm Bethany. Welcome to the circus."

          I suppressed a smile. "I'm Grace," I said.

          "Nice to meet you."

          "You too."

          Bethany took a moment to flatten her mousy brown hair, running her fingers through the tangled locks hurriedly. Her round cheeks were flushed a vibrant pink and her lips looked especially pouted—three guesses why her and Leonid had been otherwise occupied for so long.

          "So how long have you been with Alexei?" Bethany whispered as she worked on a particularly unruly knot of hair.

         I felt Alex turn ever so slightly—almost unnoticeably—in our direction as we spoke. "Um, we're not together like that," I said.

         She looked nonplussed. "Like what, then?"

         I couldn't help but look sheepish as I admitted, "he's my boss."

         "Wait." Bethany's hands paused their frantic detangling. "You mean...you work for the Ivanovs?"

         "I guess."

         "So you're...?" she trailed off, eyes wide with surprise.

         "She's a nurse," Alexei cut in to our conversation abruptly. "Just a nurse." He looked away again quickly but I didn't fail to catch the hard glare he shot Bethany first.

         And I also didn't fail to notice the way he emphasised that I was just a nurse. As if whatever else I might have been—whatever else his employees were—he didn't want me to know about.

         I wasn't stupid. I'd already caught on that Alexei kept a lot of secrets from me. But I also knew that the vast majority of those secrets were kept to protect me. Ignorance is bliss, and also safety. From the law, and for my own sanity.

         I trusted that the secrets he kept were necessary.

         After receiving a death-glare from Alex, Bethany dropped the topic of my job like a hot plate. "That's cool..." she trailed off, finally detangling her fingers from her hair.