Their Wife

Chapter-63

A persistent buzzing dragged me out of sound sleep. For a second, I was so disoriented I thought it was the middle of the night. But when the buzzing intensified, I let out a groan before rolling over onto my side, I blindly groped for the vibrating phone.

Just as my hand touched the device, it stopped buzzing. Sighing in relief, I pulled the blanket over my head, snuggling into the pillows—

My eyes snapped open, a spike of adrenaline chasing away the worst of my drowsiness. The phone. I blinked the sleep out of my eyes and realised it was Alexei's phone on the nightstand. My thoughts immediately rushed with everything that happened in twenty-four hours and it made me completely sober.

Before Killian helped me wash last night, I placed the burner phone Dominic gave me under the drawer, thinking it was safe.

Looking around with anticipation I did not find Alexei anywhere. Even the bathroom was locked from the outside. My heart thudded.

This was the perfect opportunity to retrieve information from Alexei's phone. As Alessandro said, just a reachable distance and Alexei's phone would be hacked.

Adrenaline rushed through my veins, making my hands and feet immediately start working. I stumbled on my foot pulling the sheets tighter against my chest crouching beside the bed pulling out the burner phone underneath the drawer. The cold metal felt extremely heavy on my palm.

Pushing past all the doubts, I grabbed Alexei's phone with my trembling hands. It was locked. Swiping down the navigation bar, I turned on his Bluetooth. The burned phone buzzed.

A sense of remorse and anxiety gripped me. It felt so wrong doing this. I felt like walking on a crooked path, felt like thorns in my conscience.

The shadows lurking in corners of my mind judging me hard.

The second I placed both of the devices in the drawer, both the screens turned dark. For a moment I thought I did something wrong, but when Alexei's screen turned on again a bright yellow sign of downloading emerged, and my chest constructed.

Alessandro said the chip in the Bruner phone would store the information. The downloading showed one minute, and then fifty-six seconds.

I paced around unable to sit down counting seconds. Praying. And feeling...immorally stupid.

Memories of last night rushed in, scorching hot and toxic.

'You're my everything.'

I shouldn't be feeling this way. I had sex with Alexei Volkov last night. He hurt me, and I slept in his arms. For a moment, those two facts seem irreconcilable, like an ice storm in July.

Despite being angry at him, I came within minutes, my body responding to him even as my mind screamed in protest.

Swallowing the ball of shame in my throat, I focused on the task at hand.

Twenty-two seconds.

Twenty-one.

Looking over my shoulder at the door, I hoped Alexei remain wherever he was at the moment. I have to go through the day. No matter how it felt right now, my life didn't end last night.

Ping.

My whole body stiffened. The downloading was complete. Alexei's phone was back to its original state—default status. I hesitated, still not sure if this was as easy. Did I hack into his phone? Each breath became unsure.

My hands clamped tight with sweat. Yet I couldn't bring myself to pick up the phone.

Swallowing hard, I pushed myself to rationalise with whatever was going on in my head. I shouldn't be feeling as if I was going a crime. It shouldn't feel...claustrophobic.