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I needed to find Orlov and kill him as soon as possible.
Chapter 3
Emmy
Ivan: I’m coming by at 6 tonight.
I stared at my phone, still shocked at the sight of his name. I’d programmed him in the minute I received the text. He didn’t identify himself, but he didn’t need to—I knew who it was from the minute I read it.
My head was still spinning from the party a couple of days ago. Before he left, Ivan pulled me aside and forced me to agree to not leave the house unless it was absolutely necessary. I wanted to resist, but honestly, I was kind of freaked out knowing this Orlov guy was out there and had already planned our life together. I had no problem spending my time indoors.
I felt guilty not telling my mom what was going on, but she’d spent so much of her life worrying—worrying about me and Hannah, about money, about her job. She deserved a break. I didn’t have the heart to put this on her plate.
Ivan was going to pretend to be my boyfriend. I wasn’t sure how to feel about this. On one hand, it was a dream come true on many levels. I had craved his attention, his touch, his presence for years but there was something unsatisfying about it being forced on him.
When Drago assigned him the job, his body stiffened in surprise. The thought of him being required to spend time with me made me feel sick. He had to know my feelings for him, so having him spend time with me as a job while I pined away like a lovesick teenager was utterly humiliating.
I had two options—tell him to ask Drago to assign someone else or make him want to be my boyfriend.
I only knew one person who might know how to do that: Hannah.
Emmy: Hey, I have a very strange question to ask you.
Hannah: Shoot.
Emmy: Okay, this is embarrassing, but I think you probably already know that I have some…feelings for Ivan.
Hannah: Yes, I am aware, lol. I mean, you never admitted to it, but I could tell.
Emmy: How were you able to convince Nikolai to make your relationship real?
There was a long pause, then bubbles appeared.
Hannah: I’m going to be honest - I have no idea! We just…clicked. I wasn’t doing anything purposefully. We were just “pretending” but then it all felt real. Not that it was as easy as that—Nikolai struggled at first with dating. It wasn’t his thing, so having a girlfriend was weird for him. I wasn’t exactly cool as a cucumber either with my zero dating experience, lmao.
Emmy: Lol, okay, but this isn’t helping much!
Hannah: Sorry, sis. I’ll be honest, I’ve seen the way Ivan is with you. I think you just have to keep being yourself. If he didn’t want to be put in this role, he would’ve told Drago. I mean, Drago has a ton of other guys he could have assigned.
I paused for a moment and digested her words. They made the ball of tension sitting in my gut loosen a bit.
Emmy: Okay, that makes me feel a little better. The idea of him being FORCED to be with me had me freaking out.
Hannah: You need to remember, he may have been volunteered by Drago, but I doubt anyone could force Ivan to do anything he didn’t want to do.
Hannah was right. Ivan was a force to be reckoned with and if he hadn’t wanted this assignment, he would have spoken up. This left me with two possibilities: Ivan didn’t like me at all, or Ivan did like me, but refused to do anything about his feelings.
I wasn’t sure which was worse.
Chapter 4
Ivan
I knocked on Emmy’s door feeling awkward as fuck.
Drago said I should come to Emmy’s house once or twice this week, but once was going to have to do. I had wrestled with this assignment all week, deciding several times that I didn’t want to do it, but every time I went to contact Drago, the thought of another asshole being that close to Emmy made me more uncomfortable than the assignment itself.
It was exactly six o’clock, so I figured she might be waiting outside, but she didn’t even answer the door. Her mother did.
