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She frowns. “You’re freaking me out.”
“I’m not trying to freak you out.” Then I think better of it and chuckle. “Actually, maybe I am. But it’s only because that guy is an absolute creep. You don’t want anything to do with him.”
“Okay. I believe you,” she says. “But how do you even know him? I thought you and I were the outsiders to this whole world. Francia is the one who knows these people.”
I bite my lip. “I don’t want you to get mad…”
“Then don’t stop talking,” she says. “I’ve been without human contact for the last week, and this is the most riveted I’ve been since the last season ofThe Bachelor.Spill the beans, girl. All of them.”
So… I do.
After keeping so many secrets and navigating the murky waters of my not-really-on and off again relationship with Ivan, it feels good to speak the truth.
I walk Jorden through my mom getting remarried to my stepdad and his expectations for me. I tell her about my forced engagement to Mikhail and how, in the final weeks before what would have been our wedding, I ran for it. I took what little money I had, packed a few changes of clothes in a bag, and left in the middle of the night.
“…Then I got the job at Quintaño's and met you and Francia. And now, I’m here.”
By the time I’m done, Jorden is full-on gawking at me, jaw unhinged like an anaconda. She blinks, shaking her head slowly. “That is unbelievable. Honestly, if you’d told me all of this two weeks ago, I would have said you were full of complete and utter shit.”
“Thanks for your confidence.”
“It’s the truth.” She shrugs. “I would have thought you were delusional or something. But now, you’re engaged to Ivan Pushkin. If that can happen, anything can happen.”
“Hey!”
She laughs and reaches for my hand. “I didn’t mean it like that. You’re a catch. I just mean…well, you know what I mean. One minute, we were working the opening shift and now, you’re engaged and being targeted by assassins. It’s wild. The shit with Mikhail doesn’t sound nearly as crazy compared to that. Even though that dude is obviously a straight-up psychopath.”
I sag. “Yeah. He might be.”
The look in his eyes last night as he towered over me… It sends chills down my spine just thinking about it.
“And your dad was just going to marry you off to him?” she asks.
“Stepdad. But yeah. He still would, I’m sure. If I went home, they’d put the announcement in the paper the minute I stepped through the front door.”
“This just doesn’t make any sense. We’re women in the modern era. You don’t have to marry anyone you don’t want to.”
I look down at my lap. “It’s more complicated than that.”
“How? Explain it to me, because I’m lost. Why can’t you just call the police on these people?”
“Because theyarethe police,” I snap. I take a deep breath to try and soothe my racing heart. “I’m sorry. I just… I haven’t thought about any of this stuff in a long time.”
Jorden lays a hand on my shoulder. “What happened?”
“Before I left, I tried reporting my stepdad to the police. He was basically planning to lock me in the house until the wedding.‘Then you’ll be Mikhail’s problem,’he said. So I called the police and said I was being imprisoned.”
“What did they do?”
I grit my teeth together, the memory as fresh now as it was that day. “They sat around the dining room table and had a cup of coffee with my stepdad. Then they shook hands and left.”
“Nuh-uh.” Jorden shakes her head. “That is not how that works. They can’t do that.”
“They can when my stepdad is one of their biggest donors. His company bought them a fleet of new squad cars a few years ago.”
“But that’s not right! They’re paid to protect people.”
“They’re paid forloyalty,” I fire back. “People like my stepdad have enough of them in their pockets that they get away with whatever they want. It’s how I know, if they catch up to me, I probably won’t get away again.”
