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I let out a long sigh and went back into my room. I picked my way over the clothes on the floor and fished out my hidden stash.
“You know, there was a time when it was the parent’s job to pay the rent, not the kid’s,” I muttered. I counted out the exact money and handed it to Henry, who looked a little too interested in where I kept it. “Don’t even think about it,” I warned him.
He rolled his eyes.“Don’t worry. I’m not interested in your little stash. I’ve got big things coming.”
“Right, like you always do. That’s why our lives are a fucking dream.”
My father’s hand lashed out and gripped my hair, pulling it hard. “Shut your mouth, Mallory, or else.”
“Or else, what? Get off me,” I ground out and shoved him back.
My father’s hobby of slapping me around when he was annoyed had worsened when we’d left home and run, but I was big enough to fight back now. One night, when I’d turned twenty, he’d hit me hard enough to split my lip. I’d gone for a knife and managed to cut his hand. He’d been shocked like it had never occurred to him I’d had enough. I’d warned him to sleep with one eye open, and it had helped a little, but he was still an abusive bastard.
“You’ll see,” Henry eventually said before turning and storming off.
I closed my door and turned the lock. Since my journal had been left out, I always locked my bedroom door before going to sleep. I must have been too out of it last night to manage it. I turned to survey my disaster of a room, ignoring the crippling migraine building inside my head.
First, get dressed. Second, feel like a human.
* * *
My dining roomtable groaned with food a couple of hours later, and Fede had joined the party. We rarely got a night off together, so this was a night to celebrate. Thankfully, I was feeling much better and more than ready to eat everything in sight. Theo was hanging on my every word, on a mission to get the insider scoop, as he called it, on Kirill. He didn’t seem to care that I had no insider scoop to give him. I hadn’t seen Kirill in seven years. Regardless, he was taken with the story of how we’d met again.
“So, let me get this straight. You run into an old friend who happens to have the hottest big dick energy I’ve ever seen. He has a coterie of tattooed friends, enough money to pay upfront for a private room at St. Katarina, a top-of-the-line phone . . . and you’re sitting here with us instead of sucking his dick somewhere. You’re such an idiot sometimes, Lori,” Theo deadpanned.
“I’m going to ignore that because you’re drunk,” I said, reaching out and pinching his kung pao chicken. “But I’m taking this to punish you. He hasn’t called me.”
“He showed up last night and carried you out of the club like a fucking knight in shining armor with a neck tattoo. It was hot.”
“What I want to know is where he’s been all this time?” Fede wasn’t in the same great mood Theo was. She’d been pensive all evening. “I mean, how did he find you now?”
I couldn’t explain it to them without revealing that I was lying about my identity. I trusted them but letting something like that slip around Rafe or Tanya might get me in trouble at work.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m not on social media.”
“Don’t I know it? Both of you suck,” Theo complained.
He was always trying to tag me, and I could never keep up with it. Of course, the socials I had were all under my false identity.
“Tell us the story again,” he said, smiling dreamily.
“It’s not romantic. We were high school sweethearts, I guess. But we lost touch. I had to move unexpectedly, and my life became the glorious thrill ride you now see.” I gestured expansively around the crappy apartment. “Fast forward nearly seven years, and we’ve met again.”
“Now it’s time for the happy ever after,” Theo said, smacking the table hard. “First, though, the I-can’t-believe-we-found-each-other sex. Lots of it.” His dark eyes were round with amusement. I could also see something else in them—happiness. Theo might tease me constantly, but he was happy for me.
Fede was another story. “But what happened to him after you left? You said he moved too.”
“I don’t know. I’m going to ask him, though. We have a lot to catch up on when he finally calls me.”
“You could call him?” Theo suggested.
I shied away from the idea. I knew I wouldn’t. I needed Kirill to call me to prove he wanted to see me and didn’t just feel sorry for me.
A buzzing sound distracted me from demanding Fede tell me what had crawled up her ass. It was my new phone, and Kirill’s name flashed on the screen.
“Oh, my god, it’s him, isn’t it? We made that happen! Maybe he could sense us talking about him. Is he a demon or something?” Theo squealed behind me.
I shushed him violently. My heart pounded. I was nervous, which I hadn’t expected.I answered quickly before it went to voicemail. “Hello?”
