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The cheesy pasta that he had whipped up churned in my stomach, bile sitting at the back of my throat and threatening to spew forward. I grabbed our plates and walked them to the kitchen, ignoring his newest round of questions. I just wanted to sleep at this point.
“Don’t ignore me, Rhys!”
I whirled around, slapping at the hand that tried to grab my waist. I was all for a bit of loving but his hands were always so goddamn rough. “What do you want me to say? I can’t tell you anything. You know that!” I took a few deep breaths to settle my emotions, knowing that when I was angry, it just made everything worse. “Owen, I can’t tell you. It’s classified.”
“And I’m not asking aboutdetails, just… you know. You never talk about your work. I thought this was a partnership.”
I frowned as I rinsed off the plates. A partnership? I wanted to rage and yell at him. A partnership meant that we were equals. That we loved and cherished each other. That we enjoyed being around each other and didn’t fucking pry into projects that we were politely asked to stay away from. Instead, I just nodded. “It is but I can’t talk about it.”
Fear raced through my body when I felt his hand on the back of my neck, squeezing hard as he yanked me backward, my head angled up to see into his black eyes. “And I told you this is apartnership.Rhys, you’re always so goddamn selfish, dangling your little dissertation over my head. You have to be the smartest one in the room, don’t you?”
I gargled, trying to grab air, the plate in my hand shattering on the floor as I scratched at the hold on my neck. “Ow-en.”
“Always gatekeeping and trying to make the rest of us feel unimportant. I’ll ask you again, what’s the project about, Rhys?” His fingers tightened and a silent scream fell from my lips as I tried to kick back at him and loosen his grip. Neither one worked. For how scrawny Owen looked, he was pretty strong. Those dark eyes continued to stare at me and then in the next moment, he let me go, suddenly on his knees. “Oh, you dropped a plate. No worries, I’ll clean it up. Go ahead and get a broom, sweetheart.”
I stumbled backward into the island, staring at Owen in horror. The flip in demeanor was terrifying and there was no fucking way I was going to be getting him anything.
I had locked myself in the guest bedroom that night, terrified that Owen was going to try something else. It was the first time he had been violent toward me but not the last. Why all these memories were resurfacing now, I had no idea but I wished they would have stayed buried.
The buzzing came again and I glanced at it, a text popping up on the screen.
>
My irrational mind couldn’t handle ignoring the threat as I answered the call. Owen sighed. “Don’t you dare fucking hang up on me again. Those bastards are trying to protect you from things you don’t understand, luring you in with false words and little touches. But you don’t need any of that Rhys. You don’t fucking need that.”
A sob tore from my throat as I buried myself farther into the cushions. The men just outside my door were more than capable of getting rid of Owen, but his paws seemed to reach much farther than just himself.
“I called your sister and she’s on her way over. She agrees with me that you’re spiraling. Sweetheart, I need you to understand the danger you’re in. That… project you’re working on is going to get you killed. You have to-”
“No,” I managed in between hiccups, clutching the phone with a death grip. “No.” Ada on her way to my house? That was the worst possible scenario. Out of all my family members, she was the only one who truly couldn’t see Owen for who he was.Why the fuck had he called her?
“She should be there in an hour after she drops off your niece.”
“No,”I whined again, my office door smashing open as Dmitri stalked forward. I didn’t even have to say anything as I sat up, tears running down my cheeks. He took one look at the phone and slipped it from my hands, even against my protests.“You can’t.”
Dmitri held it up to his ear. “Listen here, you little shit. Keep terrorizing Rhys. Go ahead, try one more time and I’m going to have you wishing you didn’t try to hire us in the first place.” He hung up and flung the phone onto the couch before crouching in front of me. “Rhys, I need you to understand that that bastard is going to be saying a lot of shit to get you to cave. But we’re not going anywhere. The other two are here because your safety is of the utmost importance. Do you hear me?”
My entire body sagged as I let out a warbled cry. “My sister’s coming.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I’m assuming she’s not the understanding type?”
“He called her,” My voice cracked as I hiccupped again, unable to comprehend the shit that Owen was trying to pull. All for a program. “Why is he using her to harass me?”
“He wants what you have. He thinks it’ll help him but once he finds out that he doesn’t know how to use it? He’ll be right back at your doorstep. The requests won’t end once you hand the project over. And we’re here to make sure you don’t.”
“But he hired you to-”
“Fuck him. Rhys,listento me.” Dmitri reached forward and I flinched, immediately hating the pain that flashed through his expression. He changed his tactic as he placed a firm hand on my thigh, massaging the bare skin with his thumb. “We’re not here for him anymore. That ship sailed the moment we walked into your kitchen and we figured out the mistake. It’s you, Love. Only you. Now, I need you to focus because you said your sister is on her way and I need to know what we’re doing.”
“Doing?” God, his hand felt good, and the way he seemed to immediately change his movement based on my discomfort? I didn’t deserve him. I didn’t deserve any of them.
Dmitri cracked a smile even as I trembled beneath his touch from the shock of Owen’s voice still ringing in my ears. “Are we your boyfriends? Contractors? Friends?”
Boyfriends…“Oh. Um… I don’t know.”
“Got it. We’ll play it by ear. Now, let’s go freshen up before the witch gets here. I’ll let the guys know to behave.” Calling Ada a witch put a little smile on my face but I was still fucking terrified of her trying to take over my life for the sake of ‘helping’. Little by little, Owen was going to try and ruin my credibility. Continually calling me and threatening me was definitely one way to start.
Chapter twenty-nine
