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I stopped her, cradling her face. “Emmy, no matter what’s going on with us, I’d never leave you in danger. Promise me that you’ll come to me when you need help.”
She nodded, mostly likely to pacify me, because she still looked unsure.
I grimaced and gripped her jaw a little tighter. “I’m serious. Tell me you’ll do it. Tell me you’ll come to me if you need help, if you’re in danger.”
Her dark brows drew together in what looked like confusion, and I couldn’t blame her. I was a contradictory asshole full of mixed signals and baffling inconsistencies. One minute I was pushing her away, the next I was encouraging her dependency.
It was our dynamic in a nutshell.
“Okay, yes, I’ll come to you,” she promised, her confused hazel eyes searching mine as if seeking understanding and clarity where there was none.
“Good, now show me the letter.”
We walked back up to her room and she led me to the note she’d thrown down on her desk. She picked it up and handed it to me.
My blood turned cold, and my jaw tightened as I read each word.
Lately it feels like you are forgetting that you’re my girl. Things are almost ready for us, but it looks like you’re getting tired of waiting for me. I know he is trying to take you from me, but I won’t let him. I’m getting sick of seeing you with him, seeing him touch you.
Get rid of him or I will.
“Fuck,” I said, crushing the paper in his hands, then shoved it in my pocket.
“How did he even get in here?” she asked, distress making her voice escalate. Her eyes darted around the room as if Orlov might be hiding in her roommate’s piles of discarded clothes.
I touched her lightly on the upper arm, hoping to calm her down. “I don’t know, but I’m not letting you stay here until we figure out how he did. Where’s your roommate?”
“I don’t know,” she said, then paused and pulled out her phone, scrolling through it. “I forgot. She texted me earlier. She’s pulling an all-nighter with her friend. Studying for an econ test.”
I nodded, relieved that I wouldn’t have to deal with the roommate’s safety right now. “Okay, we don’t have to worry about her for now, but we’ll have to figure something out tomorrow night. You two can’t be here unprotected.”
She nodded, obviously still in shock that Orlov had actually been in her room. I gripped her shoulders, giving them a consoling squeeze and felt her muscles relax instantly.
Knowing that she had such trust in me, that I made her feel so safe, had my throat closing, making me want to get the fuck out of there and chain her to my side simultaneously.
“Grab your shit. You’re coming with me.”
Chapter 23
Emmy
I sat in Ivan’s car, my thoughts like scattered marbles as I tried to process the events of the last few hours. This whole day had been a mess between Ivan, then Drew, then Belshaw, then Ivan again, by the time I got to my room, I’d been ready to get in my bed and sleep for a year. My heart felt like pulp and my eyes were so bleary I’d nearly missed Orlov’s letter.
I’d had a moment’s hesitation reaching out to Ivan after everything that had happened between us, but fate made the choice for me by having him text me first.
Now, here I was. In Ivan’s car on my way to spend the night in his apartment. The emotional back and forth was almost more than my fragile nervous system could tolerate.
He got on the phone the minute we got in the car. Fortunately, his call was routed through the Bluetooth in the car, and I got to hear the other side of the conversation.
“You find out about the roommate?” Drago said. His accent made him easy to identify.
“We’ve got problems,” he said, bypassing Drago’s question. “Orlov got into Emmy’s room and left her a note. You need to pull the video from outside her room and find out who the fuck went in there.”
“I’ll call Anya and ask her to pull it up. When do you think it happened?”
Ivan turned to me. “What time were you last in your room before I walked you home?”
“Just after lunch.”
