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“Says the kidnapper,” Kayla mutters. “Are you going to try to convince me the cops are crooked or something?”
“Of course they are. But even if they weren’t, I’d say the same things. It will get very ugly for you if you start talking to the wrong people.”
There’s a long pause before she whistles. “You are a real piece of work.”
“I’m keeping your friend alive. Without me, she’d be dead,” I grit out. “If you’re going to get in my way, then?—”
“I’m not getting in anyone’s way. Luna told me that she trusts you with her life. If she feels that strongly about it, then I have no choice but to trust her judgment. No matter what my intuition is screaming at me.”
Luna trusts me with her life.
It’s in direct contrast with the way she’s fighting like a fucking banshee to get free right now. But if she said it to her best friend in private, it’s probably true.
I make a spontaneous decision. “If you really feel that way, then you can come to the house for a visit.”
Luna instantly stops fighting. She looks up at me, blue eyes wide. “What?”
Kayla echoes the sentiment. “What?”
“I’ll send a car,” I tell her. “Be ready in an hour.”
Before I can even hang up, Luna’s arms are around my neck. She buries her face in the crook of my shoulder and breathes, “Thank you, Yakov.”
45
LUNA
Kayla lifts her head from the giant pool floaty and looks at me over the top of her sunglasses. “If Yakov wants to kidnap me, too, tell him to go ahead.”
She has no idea how close that was to being a reality. I do not plan to inform her.
“Really? That’s all it takes to lure you into a trap? A pool with a view?”
“No. Not all.” She holds up a hand and begins ticking things off on her fingers. “It would take a pool with a view, full-time maid service, a personal chef, and being able to quit my job. For all of that, I’d give up my life in an instant.”
“I’m not sure Grant would approve.”
She waves a hand. “He’d be fine. Yakov has you for all of his sexual urges, anyway. I’ll just be here as decor. Someone to lounge in the pool and eat the snacks left out on the counter.”
“Hey!” I kick water at her. “That is not what I’m doing here. It’s more complicated than that.”
“Okay, but are you or are you not hopping into bed with that man every chance you get?” She holds up her hands. “I don’t even blame you. Now that I’ve seen him, I actually understand all of this so much better.”
I flop back on my floaty and squint into the bright blue sky.
Yakov and Kayla met for all of three minutes this morning. He nodded to her as she arrived and then dragged Mariya out the front door with him for a day of “nonstop, super fun, brother-sister bonding.” Those were Mariya’s words, not Yakov’s. And she said them with her trademark cutting sarcastic edge.
Kayla now knows that Yakov is ridiculously, unbelievably attractive, but she still has no clue that I’m here for so much more than his looks. It doesn’t even have anything to do with his money or the fact that I’ve had more orgasms in this mansion than I’ve had in the rest of my life combined.
I’m in love with him.
Still.
I thought being locked in that room might have broken me of the habit, but the gnawing ache in my chest is as strong as ever. I love Yakov Kulikov… and I have no earthly idea what he feels for me.
Kayla and I drip dry by the pool and then head inside. She melts when she sees fresh bruschetta and crunchy bread waiting for us on the counter.
“Movie snack!” she declares, swiping the entire serving tray and taking it with us into the living room.
