“Then you better make sure you don’t let her out of your sight.”
I ball my free hand into a fist as I watch Emily laugh at something Jana said.
The thought of someone like Igor Ivanov getting his filthy hands on her…
“Maybe it was his plan all along to have our whole family protecting Emily.”
“You think he’s using her as bait?”
I grind my teeth. “I think so.”
“It might be time to speak to Alexei, Danil.”
As Emily throws her head back and laughs, exposing her delicate neck, I’m overcome with a primal need to storm into the place and demand she come home with me. The thought ofanyonelooking at her, let alone Igor, ignites a possessiveness in me I didn’t know I had.
“I agree.”
Dimitri hangs up the phone, and I turn all of my attention back to Emily.
She keeps picking up her phone to check it and then looks disappointed.
Is she expecting someone to call?
If Emily was seeing someone, I would know about it. She’s terrible at keeping secrets.
But then again, she kept this entire situation a secret from me for weeks, and I had no idea.
Maybe I don’t know her as well as I thought I did…
I’m selfishly tempted to send her a text just to see if her eyes light up when she receives a message from me when my phone buzzes again.
“Fuck,” I mutter as my phone lights up with an incoming call from Anton. I can’t avoid him forever, so I might as well get this over with.
“Anton—”
“Where the hell are you? Luca said you’ve taken yourself off the rotation.”
“Yeah, I, uh… A job came up for Dimitri?—”
“You have got to be fucking kidding me, Danil!”
“It’s really important.”
“I knew I was giving you too much responsibility. I thought you could handle it.”
“Icanhandle it!”
“Clearly, you can’t.”
I grind my teeth at Anton’s comment.
He has no idea what he’s talking about. If he knew what Dimitri had asked of me, he would back off.
But Emily wants this kept under wraps, so I swallow my retort and take the hit.
Ultimately, what matters here is Emily’s safety, so if I have to put up with some snide comments from Anton in the meantime, then so be it.
“What’s the job, then? It must be important if my business is allowed to suffer because of it.”