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As he charged over, I was filled with panic. I didn’t want to talk to him—I couldn’t. I started taking steps backward, then suddenly turned and darted toward the door. I heard a commotion behind me but couldn’t make out what any of it was.
I slammed the door open and started running blindly down the street, not remotely familiar with this neighborhood or where I was going. I was about to cross the street when a car pulled in front of me, the driver yelling my name through the open passenger window.
“Emmy! Hey, do you need a ride?”
I stopped and peered into the car. Drew? What the hell was he doing here? “Uh…” I needed to get out of here, but I didn’t want to have my emotional breakdown in front of Drew.
“Well?” he repeated as I stared at him stupidly, uncertain of what I should do.
“Emmy!” Ivan’s voice hollered behind me, and I turned to see him jogging in my direction. Again, my fight or flight response kicked in and I found myself ripping Drew’s car door open and hopping inside.
Chapter 30
Ivan
I stared at the departing vehicle, guilt, anxiety, and frustration jockeying for position inside me. What the fuck had Emmy been doing here? It was obvious she thought I was fucking around with Irina. Christ.
Nothing could be further from the truth. I had been close to tearing my hair out at having to fucking haggle with the greedy dancer as she threw out demand after demand in exchange for returning to Russia. I kept agreeing to everything because what the fuck did I care? But as I caved to each demand, hoping to end our discussion, she just became more emboldened. I think when we left off, I had Yev buying her a fucking apartment building or some shit.
She had also been flirting with me, which left me ice cold. I wasn’t remotely interested in fucking her. Christ, I didn’t even want to talk to her.
Then I saw Emmy. Her face collapsed in shock, sadness, and embarrassment as she saw me negotiating with Irina, misunderstanding every aspect of what was going on. Not that I blamed her—I was sitting in a strip club, with a half-dressed dancer trying to put her hands all over me the day after taking her fucking virginity.
A part of me wanted to rebel against the idea that I was even in a relationship with Emmy, that I owed her any explanations, but that was bullshit and I knew it. If I’d found her like that with another guy, his body parts would be all over the streets of Chicago.
Now, she’d run off with who the fuck knew.
I finally noticed that someone was standing next to me and looked down to see Delaney, a perplexed expression on her face. She knew something.
“Do you know who the fuck was in that car? Who picked Emmy up?” I sat her.
She shook her head for a moment, then looked at me, the most somber I’d ever seen her look. “It was Drew. I recognized his car.”
My head jerked, a sick feeling starting to come over me. “Why would she go with Drew? Why the fuck was he even here?”
“I have no idea,” Laney said, her confusion evident.
My mind was churning, all of the red flags about Drew pushing to the forefront of my mind as anxiety started to pound through me.
Drew had been cleared, but at that moment, I knew. I fucking knew it was him.
Emmy was in danger, and I could do fuck all right now about it. I jerked my phone out of my pocket and called her number, but it was quickly declined.
“Fuck,” I spat. I ran back into the club, hitting the button for Drago on the phone, anxiety and fear screaming through my system. “We’ve got a serious fucking problem. I need everything you have on Drew right now. Emmy saw me with that fucking stripper and ran off in Drew’s car. See if he was in her room yesterday. I bet a million fucking dollars he left that goddamned letter.”
“Holy fuck. Okay, I’ll send you everything Anya found. Sorry about all this shit. Katya isn’t going to be able to sit for a fucking week when I get my hands on her.”
“What? Why?” I replied, not exactly eager to hear the specifics of my sister’s relationship with her boyfriend.
“She’s the one who told Hannah that Nikolai was at the Trinity Club. Hannah dragged Emmy down there with her, apparently.”
I felt my blood pressure spike, and for the first time in my life, I wanted to wring my sister’s neck. “Goddammit.”
“Yeah. Anyway, I’ll have it all sent to you.”
“Fine. Have Anya see if she can track Emmy’s phone. If she gets a lock on it, have her call me so I can track her.”
“Got it.”
