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“Just like that?” My voice wavers a little at the idea that I might need such a thing, that I’m suddenly in a position where my lifecouldbe in that kind of danger. It makes me feel cold all over. I’ve never been in a situation like that. I’ve never felt, sincerely, that someone might hurt me. That I could die.
“Just like that.” Levin’s voice softens, and I look up at him. His face is still emotionless, cold and business-like, but I hear the thread of sincerity in his words. If I truly did need him, and pressed the button, he’d come to rescue me.
Just like that.
But I can’t be the girl who cried wolf. I’m going to have to handle myself, and carefully. Because if Grisha is the kind of man to get himself mixed up in something bad enough to result in him being set up like this, then he’s likely also the kind of man who would retaliate if he knew.
I’m going to have to tread cautiously.
“I don’t know how to do this,” I say quietly, turning the phone over and over in my hands. “I don’t know how—how to manipulate someone. How to get them to tell me things. How to sneak and lie. Those aren’t skills I have.”
I half expect Levin to say something cutting, something likethose are skills all women have, or something of that nature. But instead, his face just softens a fraction more, something almost like sympathy in his eyes.
“You’ll get used to it,” he says finally. “And if I’m being honest, men are simple creatures. You won’t have to do much. Feed his ego, seduce him, make him trust you. The foundation for it is already there, you laid it when you thought you were in a real relationship with him. Men talk easiest when they’re happy, and they’re always happy after sex. You just need to take advantage of the opportune moments when they present themselves.”
Levin hesitates then, leaning forward slightly. “You’re angry with him, Lidiya. I get that. So look at it as revenge, if that helps. He tricked and manipulated you, lied to you to get you into a relationship with him. Now do the same right back.”
“And what happens to him, once I’m done?” I swallow hard, setting the phone down next to me. “What am I doing to him, by proxy?”
Levin’s gaze meets mine, unflinching. “Do you really want to know?”
Something about the way he says it tells me that I don’t. “No,” I murmur. “No, that’s okay.” But it’snotokay. I feel the guilt already settling in my gut, the whispering voice in the back of my head telling me that just because Grisha tricked me, just because he’s a liar and a cheater, doesn’t mean he deserves whatever the men Levin works for will do to him. The way Levin said it means that they’ll probably kill him—or do things to him that will make him wish he were dead.
And I can’t pretend that it won’t be at least partially my doing.
I just don’t see what choice I have.
“So I go see Grisha when I’m told, do what I need to do in order to move the relationship forward, try to dig up the information that I assume you’ll give mesomeidea of what I’m looking for at some point—and then come back here?” I wrap my arms around myself, swallowing hard.
“That’s the gist of it, yes.”
“And you’ll sleep—where, exactly?”
Levin smirks, an expression that I’m getting all too used to seeing on his handsome face. “The couch over there will do just fine,” he says, indicating the narrow grey sofa along the wall next to the door, by where the wing chair originally was. “I’ll be able to hear you, if you try to slip past me at night and get out of here. Not that you’d do that, right, Lidiya?”
I nod mutely, my tongue running nervously over my lower lip. “Of course not,” I murmur. Actually—the thought haddefinitelycrossed my mind. Not for long—I hadn’t really thought I could get away with it. In fact, I’d thought he would be sharing the bed with me, making it even harder for me to get away. I hadn’t thought he’d give up the comfort of the huge, soft king bed for the narrow, hard-looking couch. It looks exactly like the kind of sharp-edged, stylish couch you’d expect to see in a fancy hotel room, meant for looking at or sitting primly on, not sleeping.
“Unless of course,” Levin continues with that same smirk playing at the corners of his lips. “youwantme to share the bed with you.”
Those piercing blue eyes meet mine, and in spite of myself, I feel my breath catch in my throat. It’s all too easy to imagine his tall, muscled body stretched out beside mine under the covers, the heat of it close to my skin, very little clothing between us. It’s easy to imagine the way he might roll towards me in his sleep, one of those muscular arms draped over me, keeping me safe—
--or, more likely, holding me prisoner.
“You on the couch will do just fine,” I tell him stiffly. “I would have thought you’d demand the bed.”
“Can’t have you not sleeping well,” Levin says cheerfully, pushing himself to his feet and moving the wing chair back into its previous spot, as if everything between us is all settled now. And I suppose, in his mind, it is. “You’ll need to be sharp, so that you can do your job well.”
“I’ll need clothes from my apartment.” I chew on my lower lip anxiously, wondering if he’ll at least allow me to go and get those. “I can’t just wear this same outfit over and over.”
“I’ll get approval to fund some new clothes for you.”
“No.” The word comes out sharper than I intended it to, and I see Levin raise an eyebrow, as if surprised that I’d talk back to him like that. Well, he shouldn’t be, not at this point.
“Grisha will notice, I mean. If I show up with newer, nicer clothes than he’s used to seeing me in. He’ll know something’s up.”
“That’s a fair point.” Levin considers. “We’ll go together, then,” he says, his tone brooking no argument. “Tomorrow. I’ll escort you back to your apartment so that you can pick up some of your things and bring them back here.”
There really is going to be no escaping this man.Whatever way I try to think of to get some space from him, even for just a little while to organize my thoughts, he finds a way to stonewall it.
