Deadly Secrets by M J Marlow (good short books .txt) 📖

sister. “Herr Zeller.” “Hello, Alexei.” “Ursa,” Alexei said, his voice deadly calm, “go back to our suite and remain there until I return.” “Ori…” “Now, Ursa,” Alexei snapped. When she had left, he turned to the man. “I would prefer you stay away from my sister, Herr Zeller,” he said tightly. “She is not involved in our business and I would prefer it remain that way.” “She could be, Alexei,” Zeller said on a note that held warning. “Ask her about her swim in the river sometime if you don’t believe we are serious.” Elis watched her brother and Zeller arguing. Alexei was trying so hard to keep his temper in check, but Zeller finally said something to make him snap. Alexei slugged him across the jaw and came storming back in her direction. He clamped his hand on her wrist and yanked her along after him. Only when they were in the suite and he had a drink in his hand and half imbibed did he calm down. Elis waited for him to say something. “It’s about those files and the notebook, isn’t it?” she asked softly. He looked up at her in shock. “What are you doing with these people, Ori? You’re a gifted violinist…” “Who until recently was impoverished,” Alexei reminded her with a tinge of bitterness in his voice; “until his angel of a sister came back into his life and took over his finances.” “Flattery is not going to distract me, Ori,” Elis said to him. “You’ve let these people talk you into something stupid, haven’t you?” She laid her hand on her shoulder. “Tell me, Ori; please.” He thought about it for several moments and Elis wasn’t certain he would tell her. But then he nodded and went to sit on the couch. He motioned her over and she could see he was struggling with the right words. What he was going to tell her was not something he had ever wanted to share with her. “It wasn’t anything major at first,” Alexei said as she sank down at his feet to listen. “They gave me letters to carry across international borders during my tours. In return, they paid my bills and gave me money. But I am not like Mama or Natasha or you when it comes to money, and it was soon gone.” He put his head in his hands and sighed. “Then the letters became packages smuggled in the instruments and crates. When buildings began to blow up and people were harmed, I guessed what they were making me do…” “So you started keeping detailed records of the shipments and dates of attacks in the cities you were touring?” Elis asked. He nodded and she hugged him. “You are a very brave man, my brother. I am quite proud of you.” She got up and kissed his cheek. “So all we have to do now is get those files to the right people…” “I can’t do that, Ursa,” Alexei said to her. “Zeller told me today that if I did not turn those files over to them he would be joining our family as your husband. He is a cruel man, Ursa; I could never allow that to occur.” He put his hand to her cheek. “We have only just found each other again, sister. I could not bear to lose you because of my weakness.” Elis sank down on the couch near him and put her arms around him. He was broken, she realized then. He had done so much damage to other people in hi life he was afraid to make a move for fear he would be the cause of more. She had no idea he was playing her. He was far more gifted at manipulation than she was and he had her believing he was a hapless artist in need of rescue. He could not afford for her to learn the real truth; his life and hers depended on his keeping her ignorant. She cupped his chin in her hand and looked at him sternly. He paid attention as he recognized the look that meant she was plotting something. “I have an idea, brother,” she said softly, “but it is going to require you to be strong and unafraid.” He nodded and she smiled. “You and I are going to have a fight; a very public fight with yelling and slapping and me storming out. I will pack and go back to England. You will wait for one day for me to come back with my head hanging in defeat, and then you will follow me. You will go to Uncle Percival and you will tell him everything you have told me. More,” she nodded, as he appeared to balk, “if you know what is good for you. It is the only way for you to be free of them, Ori. It is not just you and me here; we have a very large and loving family you need to start trusting.” He looked hesitant. “I need to know you can do this, Ori, or I will forget the whole thing and confront Zeller myself.” “No, Ursa!” Alexei shook his head. He looked at her determined face and nodded. “Very well. I will follow this plan of yours. Is there more?” “You will not believe anyone who tells you they are holding me hostage,” Elis said to him. He could see she was determined to keep him safe, and he nearly broke. But he held on and let her continue with her plan. “If anyone approaches you and says this is so, you will leave for England immediately. You must go to Uncle Percival.” She laid her hand on his shoulder. “That is what matters now, Ori. Do you understand me?” She got to her feet and started pacing. “We have practice in an hour. Are you ready to move?” Alexei nodded. “Then that is where we shall have our fight.” They went to the theater and had practice. Near the end Alexei criticized the way she had played and Elis snapped at him and told him she was going home to England. He could starve for all she cared. He did not deserve to have a family; if he didn’t know how to treat them. He slapped her across the face and Elis stood there stunned for a moment. Then she burst into tears and ran out of the theater. Elis heard the orchestra playing again and hid her smile. Her triumph at a well-executed ruse died quickly as she entered the suite and found Zeller waiting for her. He stood to his feet and clapped his hands. “What a performance, Lady Elissa,” he said as he raised his gun and pointed it at her. He looked at her with respect in his eyes. “We were dealing with the wrong Milosevic. You have the courage and determination your brother is lacking.” He waved her to a seat. “Please make yourself comfortable, child. We will wait for your brother.” “I am leaving to return home,” Elis replied and tried to get to her room. She was caught by one of the other men and forced into a chair. He bound her wrists behind her back. “Why are you doing this?” She tried to pull free and her wrists protested the chafing. She looked over her shoulder to see a man with one dead eye and an ugly scar on his face. Something about that face stirred a memory, but it was gone as quickly as it had come. Zeller sat down across from her and smiled as he watched her mind spinning. This child was fearless. “You received something in England,” he said simply, “that you were not meant to receive, lady Elissa. You could make things a whole lot simpler if you would just tell us where the files are.” “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Elis snapped at him. A third man came around the chair and slapped her across the face. “You can beat me all you want. I can’t tell you something I don’t know.” “We don’t believe you, little lady,” Zeller told her bluntly. “We know your brother shipped the trunk to you. We know he hid the files inside of that trunk.” He looked at his confederate. “Slap her around a little, Morgan. We need to set the stage for our little drama anyway.” Morgan slapped her until her head was spinning from the pain. Elis could feel herself sliding out of the chair and she was yanked back and held in place as Morgan hit her a few more times. Then they gave her a shot and her head was spinning for a completely different reason. There was the sound of a key in the lock and she felt her wrists being freed. She slid to the floor and the men hid. Alexei walked in and saw his sister beaten and he picked her up and carried her to the couch. “Ori,” Elis tried to talk but it hurt so bad now she couldn’t think straight. Her eyes widened as the door opened and the men came out. “Trap!” “How could you hit your sister like that, Alexei?” Zeller said sadly. “We know she made you mad at practice today, but this is too much.” He nodded to his men and they tried to grab Alexei. He slugged one and took off like a bat out of hell. The men took after him and lost him in the twists and turns of the street. “It doesn’t matter,” Zeller shrugged as he looked over at Elis, who was glaring at him in defiance even through the haze of pain. “We have the girl and we can still set up the lie. Alexei won’t get far before the police arrest him for attacking his sister.” The police arrived and Elis listened in mounting horror as her captors told them the lie. The drug they had given her left her momentarily mute, so she could only sit there as they told the officers how they had been coming to speak to Mister Milosevic about a business matter. They had walked in on an argument and seen him beating his sister while she begged him to stop. They had tried to subdue him and he had run. The police got Elis to a hospital and she was in a private room when Zeller arrived. He leaned close and whispered something in her ear. She burst into tears and he looked at her sadly. Elis shook her head in disbelief. “It’s not true!” Elis cried in disbelief. “Why are you lying to me, Herr Zeller?” She turned her back on him and continued to cry. The police lieutenant came in and saw the grieving look on Zeller’s face and Elis in tears and frowned. “You were to let us tell her, Herr Zeller,” the man said stiffly. He took a chair and set it by the bed. “Lady Elissa,” he said gently as he took her hand in his. “I regret that I must bring you this news. We were trying to apprehend your brother and he fell into the river. We have been searching for him all night and now believe he is dead.” “No,” Elis shook her head and looked at him coldly. “It is not true! I don’t know why all of you are lying to me. It’s cruel!” She looked at Zeller. “Tell him the truth, Herr Zeller.” Zeller just stood there. “He did it! He lied about my brother beating me. My brother would never have hit me.” She saw Zeller coming towards her with a needle. She winced as the needle bit into her vein. “I want my brother!” she sobbed as the sedative took effect. “Please,” she sobbed as she gripped the lieutenant’s arm, “he’s not dead…” “The poor child,” Zeller said as his two friends arrived wearing white orderly uniforms. “Her brother was a sadistic bastard