Page 16 of Sinful Promise

“Okay…” I glance nervously at my brother as he sits in the cream armchair adjacent to us.

His face is deadly serious, which puts me on edge.

Even in the most serious situations, Dimitri can always find the humor in it. I’m the same, which often drives Alexei and Mikhail up the wall when we’re trying to have business meetings. So, to see Dimitri being serious makes me anxious to know what he’s about to tell me.

He leans forward to rest his forearms on his knees. “Some guy is stalking Emily.”

It takes a second for his words to register.

“I’m sorry, what?” I glance at Zara, and the way her eyes well with tears confirms I didn’t mishear what Dimitri said.

“Emily has a fucking stalker.”

Zara nods. “He broke into her apartment last night.”

“Are you serious right now? Some guy broke into her apartmentlast night?”

My pulse spikes.

Dimitri nods.

I run a hand over my face. “Fuck. I knew I should have walked her to her door. I should go?—”

I make to stand up, but Dimitri holds up a hand to stop me.

“Sit down, Danil.”

Has my older brother completely lost his mind? Does he seriously expect me to sit around and discuss the fact that some guy broke into Emily’s apartment over a cup of tea?

“They were gone by the time she got home.”

“Wait, so how does she know someone broke in?”

Zara sniffs. “Someone has been leaving her gifts in her apartment. There was one waiting for her last night.”

“What kind of gifts?” My teeth are gritted so hard I can barely get the words out.

“There was lingerie with a note asking her to wear it to bed.”

“I’m going to fucking kill this guy?—”

“If you can’t keep a level head about this, Danil, then I can ask Mikhail to help instead. I can’t have you making a stupid mistake because you’re too emotionally invested.”

“Emotionally invested? Of course, I’m fucking emotionally invested! This is Zara’s sister, my best friend, we’re talking about!”

“I’m aware.”

“I just… Fuck, just let me process this, will you?”

“You can process it without biting our fucking heads off.”

I turn to Zara. “Wait, when did you find out about this?”

“Emily called me last night.”

“But I walked her home. I could have been there in a matter of minutes. This doesn’t make any sense.”

Why the hell didn’t she call me?

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