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Hannah sidled up next to me, her face riddled with concern. “How do you feel about all of this, Em? I mean, a lot of shit has happened in the last couple of weeks, and you’ve been through so much. Are you okay with all of it?” Hannah asked, her face creased with concern and compassion.
I reached out and gave her arm a reassuring squeeze. I knew she was still guilt-ridden about dragging me down here to confront Nikolai. Especially when she found out that the only reason Nikolai was down here was to talk to a man who knew where his mother was buried.
“I’m fine, Hannah. In fact, I’ve never been happier in my life. Especially knowing that Orlov is completely out of the picture now. And,” I started, my cheeks flooding with color again. “Now that I’m with Ivan.”
Katya and Hannah squealed while Anya rolled her eyes at them but smiled supportively. “Come, give us all the details!” Hannah said, dragging me to a booth. “Well, maybe not all the details. You’re still my little sister.”
“Yeah, and that’s my older brother, so please, feel free to edit out the pornographic bits,” Katya echoed as she and Anya sat across from us.
I snorted. “Okay, fair enough.” I gave them the quick, and highly edited version of me and Ivan’s unconventional courtship.
“My brother went to a college frat party?” Katya exclaimed through chuckles. “I can’t even imagine! I can’t believe they didn’t kick him out for being such a wet blanket. He must have been miserable.”
I thought back to the time Ivan and I spent in the storage room at the frat house, his mouth licking, sucking and kissing, his hands showing me exactly what I’d been missing all these years while a hundred people partied on the other side of the door.
“Yeah, well, he dragged Will down there to help him out because my roommate got a little wasted.”
“Oh, yes! How is your roommate? How is she dealing with the situation with Orlov?” Hannah asked. “She seemed so sweet. She didn’t deserve to be dragged into his bullshit. She must be so upset.”
I nodded. Poor Delaney. I still struggled to wrap my mind around the fact that Orlov had been close to us that whole time, playing with Delaney, manipulating both of us. I’d had a brief text conversation with her earlier, but I knew we were going to have a long talk about what happened. I wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t want to talk to me ever again, honestly. It was my fault that Orlov was even in her life. I was relieved when she replied to my texts.
“I texted her before we left to come here. I actually invited her, but I don’t know if she’s going to show up. She’s so embarrassed and hurt by the whole thing. I feel like a terrible person getting her involved with all this.”
“Emmy, you didn’t do that shit,” Anya said bluntly. “Don’t take ownership of Orlov’s fucked up choices.”
I nodded my head slowly. I understood her logic, but guilt still ate at me. I had a feeling it was going to take a while for Orlov’s imprint on my life to fade away.
I looked over at where Ivan was standing with Will having what looked like a pretty intense conversation. Of course, I wasn’t sure Ivan had anything but intense interactions, so it was hard to know how to interpret what he was talking about. A weird pang of fear ran through me, wondering if it was about Orlov.
I felt a nudge from Hannah’s elbow. “You alright?” she asked, pulling my attention from Ivan and finding them all staring at me with various levels of concern.
I shook my head and gave them a reassuring smile. “Yeah, I’m fine, honestly. I think this thing has just messed with my head. Made me a little paranoid, I think.”
Katya nodded her head sympathetically. “I totally understand. Even though we all saw Yuri die right in front of us, I used to find myself still searching for him in crowds, jumping at random things. Still fearful. Drago was worried about me and insisted I get therapy.”
My eyes widened and darted to Drago, who was also in some kind of intense looking conversation with his right-hand man, Maxim. I think most of these guys only had two expressions—serious and homicidal. As I stared at his tall, imposing figure, it was hard to imagine tough, terrifying Drago believing in therapy. “Really?”
Katya nodded, her red-gold hair swinging. “Yeah. He said I needed to kill the Yuri that was still living in my head, that I’d never be free as long as I was afraid. And he was right. I was shocked at how much I was holding onto; how afraid I still was and how much that was limiting my life.”
“I’m also glad she went. She was jumpy as fuck for a long time after Yuri. When you’re trained to shoot first and ask questions later, it led to a few awkward encounters when I was guarding her,” Anya chimed in.
We all laughed, but I was still considering the idea. “Maybe I’ll give it a try,” I said, more to myself than them.
“Give what a try?” Ivan’s deep voice jolted me out of my thoughts as he put my drink down in front of me.
“Oh, um, well…” I didn’t know why, but I found myself somewhat reluctant to share the idea with Ivan. Maybe it was because of the significant amount of trauma I knew he endured and had done nothing about. Instead, choosing to live his life isolating himself from other people. Until now. Would the idea of therapy upset him?
“She’s thinking of going to therapy,” Anya said.
Ivan’s eyebrows slammed together, but again, that’s pretty much his reaction to any new information, so I wasn’t sure what that meant.
I opened my mouth to give more details, but before I could say a word, Drago interrupted us. His face was creased in agitation, making the scar that slashed down the left side of his face dance as his expression tightened. Drago was one of the rare men who had a scar, and it did nothing to make him less attractive. In fact, the imperfection only enhanced his fearsome beauty.
“Ivan, we have to fucking talk. Orlov woke up and he’s saying a lot of crazy shit. About Armstrong.”
Ivan looked startled, then darted a quick, strange look in my direction. I’d never seen that look on him, but I knew what it was. Worry.
For some reason, what Drago had said made Ivan anxious. Was this what had him so tense back at his apartment? Was this what he was avoiding telling me? Who was Armstrong?
