Page 40 of Dark Knight

"No, I don't think I would."

He frowned, and for the first time, he seemed to actually take me seriously. "Even if somebody somehow managed to get in, everybody here knows who works for me and who doesn't. An intruder would be spotted right away and brought to Hudson for questioning.”

The way he said “questioning” made me think that it wasn't actually questioning but something more along the lines of punishment.

I didn't want to keep pushing the issue, so I let it drop, waiting for Hudson to confirm what I had already said. When Dylan slid his phone from his pocket and looked at the screen, I had to wonder if it was a message from Hudson. If it was, what would his reaction be?

"He says there's nothing there." Dylan's face was carefully blank as he put his phone back in his pocket.

He slid off the edge of the desk and knelt in front of me. The trousers he wore barely contained his thighs as the muscles flexed. He and Hudson were both powerhouses, and if anybody could keep me safe, it was the two of them. They could only do that if they believed there was a threat, and right now, they thought I was a crazy person.

"Listen, how about you stay in my room tonight. Then, we'll know if anything happens, if anybody's trying to get to you? Would you feel safer that way?"

I reluctantly nodded my head. "You sure you don't mind?"

He pretended to think about it for a second before grinning at me. "Having a beautiful woman in my bed would not be a hardship, I can promise you that."

I wanted to disagree. I wanted to tell him that if he didn't believe me and thought everything was safe, then I should sleep in my own room instead of running to him like a scared child.

But I was scared.

I had already been taken once.

I had lived with a cult.

I just wanted to be normal for a little while. It felt like I had finally succeeded in that for the first few months of college, but everything went to shit. Just thinking about it made me want to cry and have a little pity party for myself. I refused to give in to those emotions, so I took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

"Okay, I'm going to go and practice the moves that Theo showed me yesterday. Will you find me later?"

"How about you find me when you're ready for bed?"

I wanted to ask if we were going to eat dinner together–do literally anything together–or if I was just a doll that he was keeping in the house. One that he could dress up the way he wanted, fuck the way he wanted…not that we had actually fucked yet. But I was scared to know the answer.

At some point, something had to give. I'd either need a job, or I'd need to go back to school. I was hoping he would let me do the latter, at least then I could work toward something instead of just working to pay off a debt. I wasn't sure he'd ever be on board with that, though.

"Thank you for looking into it," I said before I walked out, leaving the door ajar as I headed toward the gym.

Whether he believed it or not, I knew there was somebody in this house who was trying to hurt me. It was just a matter of when they would try next. Somehow, I thought the next message on my mirror wouldn't wouldn't be just written for the steam to show–it would be written in my blood instead.

20

Dylan

Sonuvabitch. How the hell did someone infiltrate the house? I lied to Evie because I didn't want her to be scared while she was here, especially not when I'd promised to keep her safe.

Sometimes I wondered why she was here in the first place. Why didn’t I turn her away at the auction house? Why did I give in to a naked girl's demands?

I didn’t have answers to those questions, which frustrated the hell out of me. I knew I confused Hud, and Theo even more, but when I'd been looking down into those deep brown eyes, I couldn't say no. Not when they were filled with terror.

It wasn't the kind of fear that came from knowing someone had purchased you, either. Evie's fear was palpable. She either knew the man who was picking her up or the man who purchased her, I was almost certain of that.

I hadn't bothered asking her about her connection to the Ricci family. Luca Ricci, the man who'd been a thorn in my side for entirely too long, was the one who purchased her. If I wanted a piece of property, he would purchase it just before I could. If I was trying to make a deal with some officials, they were already on his payroll. But this time, I had something he wanted.

If I was being honest, I was surprised he hadn't already come after her, but now I was second guessing that assumption. Was there a traitor amongst us? Who was responsible for scaring Evie in my home?

The eight-pointed star was a Bratva symbol, the same one on the photo of her mirror that Hud sent me. Ricci wasn't Bratva, and the Sidorov family, including all of their subfamilies, would never leave a clue like that on purpose. Not unless they were sending a message.

There was no reason for the Bratva to want Evie. They shouldn’t even be interested in her in the slightest, so they wouldn't be trying to send a message by scaring her. That meant that it was someone trying to place the blame elsewhere. Whoever this was wanted to get to Evie and either take her or hurt her without starting a clan war.

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