The Alibi Man

Chapter 57

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, genuinely afraid because I really didn’t know what he was talking about. That was always a much stronger line when I was lying.

Kulak looked as crazy as he had the first night he came to me. The significant difference was that his insanity that night had been driven by grief, and this rage was being given extra fuel by drugs. Raw emotion and chemical reaction-a volatile mix, the kind of combination that got people killed every day of the week. Especially when the vessel containing that mix was holding a gun.

“You lying whore,” he said, pushing the barrel of the gun into the skin just below my left cheekbone. “I saw you. I saw you on television.”

“What are you talking about? On television?”

“You and your lover. He killed my Irina. You would protect him. You would never tell me.”

I swallowed hard and tried not to shake as I looked him in the eyes. “Alexi. I don’t know what you’re talking about. You have to believe me.”

“I don’t have to do nothing,” he said. “I do what I want. I’m thinking I want to kill you.”

“How can I help you if you kill me?”

“You are of no use to me, you lying cunt.” He grabbed me by the neck and marched me across the room, toward the French doors onto the back patio. As we passed the hall to the guest suite, I wondered what he had done to Lisbeth. She was of no use to him either. Had he killed her? Or was she in bed, still blissfully unconscious, unaware of the danger just beyond her door? Kulak had begun to mutter in Russian. He shoved me out the door. I could see his car parked at the far end of the barn, out of sight from the driveway.

If he got me in the car, I was as good as dead. I pretended to stumble, throwing Kulak off balance, then came up with an elbow, hitting him in the Adam’s apple. He tumbled backward, choking, grabbing at his throat with one hand. I bolted sideways, started to run.

I felt the sting almost before I heard the shot. The bullet cut through the flesh of my left upper arm like a hot, sharp knife. I grabbed my arm just as Kulak barreled into me from behind, knocking me flat on the flagstones, my right arm caught beneath me and no way to break my fall. My breath burst out of my lungs, and stars swam before my eyes. Alexi Kulak stood, grabbed me by the scarf I had tied around my throat to hide the marks he’d left from choking me, and hauled me to my feet.

He had to half-drag me to his car. Not because I was fighting him, but because I couldn’t. Stunned, semiconscious, and bleeding, was no match for him. When we reached the Mercedes, he popped the trunk and shoved me inside. I had only a second to register the fact that there was already a body in it. Bennett Walker.