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I stand up and go to the bottom of the stairs.
“Emma…”
Walking up, I grab the handle. It rattles in the lock, the bolt holding it in place.
“He locked the door,” I tell her, almost numbly.
“I’ll talk to him.”
“I’m trapped down here.”
“It’s a lot to take in, I know. Sit down.”
“I don’t need to sit down.”
She moves her hands away as if I’ve burned her. Tears glimmer in her eyes. “I wanted to tell you for so long but never knew how. Anyway, Dad said I couldn’t tell anybody.”
“Is that true what he said? Would the Russians…”
Suddenly, I start laughing. It comes from a deep well within, a place of complete absurdity that looks down on this situation like the farce it is—a joke, unfunny, and without a punchline.
The Russians. Suddenly, I’m talking about some kind of criminal war.
“Would theygetme?” I go on, giggling as I drop onto the sofa.
“Emma,” Rosa says, using my name like an accusation. Am I going nuts?
“I can’t stay here,” I tell her.
“Maybe itwouldbe for the best,” she says softly.
She doesn’t understand. If I stay here, it will mean seeing more of Leo, possibly seeing him and letting in more of these intrusive thoughts.
“I’ll lose the lease on the apartment and the job. When I leave, I’ll have nothing.”
Rosa frowns, softly touching my knee as she sits beside me. “Dad can take care of that. He’ll make sure the job and the apartment are waiting for you. Even if that fell through, you’d never have nothing. You’d still have me, right?”
We were both the outcasts in school, Rosa because she was painfully shy and apparently ugly, and me because I was painfully shy and on the bigger side. Wordlessly, we became friends. We’d sit together at lunch, then go to the library together, our heads buried in books about wildly different topics but together.
“You should’ve told me,” I say, gently brushing her hand off my knee. “I’ve been in danger for years just by being around you.”
She stands and bows her head. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”
Even if I’m supposed to be closed off, I can’t take the pain in her voice. Leaning forward, I take her hand and squeeze it.
“We’ll always be friends, but I’m pissed at you and have a right to be.”
She snatches her hand away. “I was protecting my family.”
“I consider you family.”
She huffs, folds her arms, and softens. “I’ll talk to him, okay?”
CHAPTERFOUR
Leo
“She stays,” I say firmly.
