Page 111 of Drawn Together

I glared at him and left the apartment, furious.

We waited for the elevator without even looking at each other. Then, when the doors opened and we stepped in, he took me by the arm and gently pressed me into the mirror.

“I couldn’t say anything inside the apartment,” he said, briefly stroking my cheek, leaving me confused. “You’re not a plaything. Haven’t I made it clear that you matter to me? But things have changed.”

“What?” I asked, not understanding what he meant. “What are you talking about?”

The elevator stopped and the doors began to open. Sebastian jumped back, as if my skin suddenly burned him. I followed him out, more confused than ever.

Seated before Norman in the lobby were two very large men in nice suits. They both stood as soon as they saw me, and I instinctively stopped short.

Sebastian didn’t step away from me, but when he opened his mouth, my stomach nervously flipped inside.

“Marfil, this is Jakov and Egor,” he said, gesturing toward them. The two men stared blankly at me. “From now on, they’ll be working with me on your personal security detail.”

I scoffed and glared at Sebastian with a rage that I knew shouldn’t be directed at him. “No fucking way,” I said, backing away from him.

Sebastian stepped in front of me, blocking my view of the two gorillas. “Marfil,” he said in a low voice, “there’s nothing we can do; he ordered it.”

“He’s no one, fuck,” I said, pushing Sebastian away and dashing out the door.

I raced toward Central Park, almost getting run over as I crossed the street. When I finally glanced back, I saw Sebastian and the other two men glaring at me as I moved farther away and they were forced to stop for traffic.

My head was spinning. Everything was changing. Everything was happening too fast and I didn’t understand anything.

If you were mine, you’d have five men guarding you.

I ran faster still. The adrenaline was coursing through my system, and I felt as if my world were collapsing all around me without being able to do anything about it. I stopped at one of the many bridges and climbed onto the rocks underneath, tucked out of sight. I didn’t want to see anyone, especially not Sebastian.

Did he support this? Had he approved or even requested more men? How long had he known about it?

It didn’t take long for Sebastian to find me, and when he did, he didn’t look angry, just relieved.

“Come out from there, please,” he said, out of breath from running.

“I want to be alone, Sebastian,” I said, looking down at him.

“I asked them to wait at the apartment. You and I need to talk.”

“Oh, now you want to talk?” I asked, not intending to move an inch. “Fine, let’s start with how you found me here,” I said, suspecting that I wasn’t going to like the answer one bit.

Sebastian sighed. “You have a tracker on your cell phone,” he said calmly. “I can follow it from an app, but I’m the only one with access to it.”

Fuck. That explained a lot.

“That’s how you knew where I was the day of the concert.”

He didn’t say anything, which was enough of a response.

I climbed down from the rocks and stood in front of him. “Were you ever planning to tell me?”

“If I had, and you wanted to get away from me, it would’ve made things pretty easy for you, don’t you think?”

I looked away… It was true, I had snuck out… If I had known, I could’ve simply left my phone at home and he would’ve never known where I was. Also, considering more recent events, my little escapade that night could’ve ended very badly.

“Why more bodyguards?”

“Marcus wants to keep you in line, and me, too.”