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“Your new best friend didn’t fill you in?”
She rolls her eyes. “Oh, real mature. You know I’m supposed to be the teenager here, right?”
“I’m not doing this right now. Go to your room, Polly.”
“You can’t just send me to my room when you don’t like the way the conversation is going. You’re not my father.”
I advance on her. “I’m the closest fucking thing you have to it. Alyssa is down there for her own safety and she will stay down there until the threat has passed. Now, go to your room.”
She sizes me up. Then her jaw tightens in a gesture that looks all too familiar—because I see it every time I look in the mirror. “Enjoy your food,” she snaps. Then she drops the plate right to the floor. It cracks and shatters, dough and porcelain flying in every direction.
Polina doesn’t stick around to see the mess. She storms off, leaving a trail of melancholy rage in her wake.
The moment she’s disappeared upstairs, I turn and go to the basement. Alyssa’s already got Lev.
I’m not gonna let her get to Polly, too.
53
ALYSSA
He storms in like a tornado, all rage and chaos and turmoil. I’m guessing Polly went and spilled the beans, because there’s no other reason for this visit. No other reason for that wild, unhinged look in his face.
I back up a little despite swearing internally that I was going to stand my ground this time. “For a man who says he doesn’t want anything to do with me, you sure come down here a lot.”
His eyes flare with azure flame and I bite my tongue.Why are you goading him?I tell myself Uri would never hurt me, but I’ve also never seen him look so angry.
He charges forward, forcing me against the far wall. He doesn’t stop until his body is an inch from mine and his nose is almost touching my own. “So I hear you met my sister,” he growls. His voice is deep and guttural. There’s definitely anger there… but there’s passion, too.
“You’re acting as though I conned her into coming down here,” I snap back. “She’s the one who followed Lev. That’s not my fault!”
“Maybe not, but shooting your mouth off about everything sure as hell is.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. You can keep me hostage here but I can’t talk about it? You get to treat me like shit but I can’t react to it? You get to push your way into my space and I can’t push—” I put my hands on his chest and shove. “—back!”
He doesn’t budge an inch. Instead, his hands slam down on either side of me, trapping me. I should feel claustrophobic but all I feel is hot. Really, really hot.
“You can do whatever the fuck you want. Just don’t do it with my siblings. Those two are off-limits.”
“Mhmm, and have you told them that?” I demand. “Because they’re the ones that came looking for me.”
“Lev doesn’t know any better and Polly wasn’t looking for shit. She just—”
“You don’t think she’s looking for anything?” I scoff. “Tryattention. Tryaffection. Tryhonesty.”
“She has plenty of that,” he grits out. But it’s obvious that he doesn’t believe what he’s saying.
“Please. She needs you, Uri. And not just on random weekends. She’s trying to make herself small so that you don’t have to worry about her. But guess what? She needs more than she’s willing to ask for.”
He stops short and his fury abates for a second. Even his temper is not enough to distract from the worry he has for his sister. My heart aches as I watch those blue eyes unravel. “Did she say that?”
I sigh. “She didn’t have to. I could tell just from talking to her. She’s hurting, too, Uri.”
He’s looking right at me but his gaze is unfocused and distant. “She was the one that wanted to go off to boarding school. It was her decision.”
“Might it have had a little something to do with the fact that Lev doesn’t do well around her?”
Bam.Just like that, the focus is back on me. Intense enough to make me sweat. “What happened?” he asks. “Something must have happened between the two of them while they were—”
