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I gulped but said nothing. I had no idea how to respond.
Fortunately, he didn’t seem to be interested in my commentary. “I have other plans this evening, but I knew it was time to finally introduce myself.” He lifted his hand to lightly touch my cheek, causing me to cringe away. Instead of being offended, he only chuckled. “Take care, Emmy. I’ll be seeing you again very soon.”
I let out the breath I didn’t even realize I’d been holding, tremors racking my body as Armstrong disappeared out of sight. Though the encounter only lasted a few minutes, every word he spoke had been layered in malice. I was utterly shaken and completely drained, unable to figure out if he knew I’d recognized him and had been toying with me.
“Jesus, who was that guy?” Kevin asked, his face screwed up in an expression of distaste.
God, I could only imagine his reaction if I answered that question honestly. “Some guy who paid for a scholarship I was awarded in high school.”
It was not only the simplest response I could give Kevin, given the circumstances, it was the one that fit the best. Armstrong was just some guy, genetics notwithstanding. Well, a really bad some guy, but some guy all the same.
“Ah. He gave off some real creepy vibes.”
“You can say that again,” I murmured.
“Emmy!” Another, infinitely more familiar, voice hollered across the field of people streaming around backstage. Kevin nearly yelped when he spotted Ivan marching toward us, his expression hard and forbidding.
“Gotta go, Em. Good job,” he rushed out, scuttling away as if a vampire was bearing down on him.
Ivan reached me and scooped me up in his embrace. “That guy is still hanging around you?” he grumbled.
With his touch, a feeling of safety swept over me, making me all too aware of the terror that had been steadily pumping through my body. I vaguely registered Ivan’s jealous comment with a halfhearted smile. “He’s harmless. He was just congratulating me.”
He pulled back and stared at me, two green lasers dissecting my expression. “What’s wrong? You look upset. What happened?” he asked in quick succession.
I took a deep breath, surprised to feel tears prickling my eyes. “Armstrong was here.”
“What?” Ivan pulled me tightly against him and pulled out a gun from…somewhere. I had no idea where he kept it. “Where the fuck is he?” he growled, scanning the crowds for a glimpse of the unfortunate sack of skin that was my father.
Even though seeing his gun was disconcerting, it was also reassuring. The last bits of tension left my body. “He’s gone. You can probably put that thing away,” I said, gesturing toward the gun. “In fact, you probably should anyway. The entire orchestra is already afraid of you.”
He rolled his eyes at that, obviously not wasting much time worrying about the opinions of my fellow musicians. “How the fuck did Drago’s guys miss him? Where was he?”
“I think he was backstage and waited for the show to be over to approach me without being seen. He only talked to me for, like, two minutes.”
Ivan cradled the side of my face, his thumb rubbing across my cheek in a soothing gesture. Soothing I still desperately needed. “What did he say?”
I recounted the conversation as Ivan’s jaw tightened to the point of what looked like pain.
“Jesus Christ, this asshole doesn't have enough going on, he’s got to show up here to mindfuck you?”
“It looks that way.”
“What the fuck,” Ivan muttered as he picked up his phone and texted someone. “I just notified all the guys that Armstrong was here to be on the lookout for him. Though, if he was able to get in without us seeing, I’m sure he’ll get out.”
“Do you think he knows that I know what’s going on?”
Ivan shook his head, his face pinched in consideration. “I don’t know. He might have noticed all the Bratva guys, but Drago’s with Katya and he might have just chalked it up to him being protective of her. I think he would have been more inclined to grab you if he thought you, or we, knew what he was doing. Goddammit, I can't believe he was here.”
I shuddered. “I’m just glad he’s gone.”
Ivan’s arms banded around me like steel bars, his face buried against my neck. I could feel his heart beating against my chest, a testament to his emotional state.
“This was it, Emmy. No more going out after this. You’re going to email all your teachers and tell them you still have the flu or something. I can’t handle having you out of my sight, out of my reach, until this thing with Armstrong is over. Maybe even after that.”
A part of me wanted to protest the drastic restrictions, but honestly, all I felt was relief at the extreme measures Ivan was willing to institute to ensure my safety. One meeting with my father was enough to last me a lifetime.
Ivan pulled back and brushed some loose strands of hair out of my face, tucking them behind my ear. “It fucking kills me that he got so close to you. It definitely won’t be happening again.”
