I laugh a little, nodding at her accurate assessment.
“It seems like you handled his ass yourself.” She says, making me feel much more capable than I did before.
She’s right. I was able to handle it.
“If he bothers you again, you better tell me. We’ll figure it all out together. I know cops always make you uncomfortable because of your past, but you need to know that you can always call me, and I’ll come running. Always. Deal?”
“Deal.” I agree, mirroring her conspiratorial smile.
“In the meantime, I think maybe we should work harder on confronting this confinement fear you have. I don’t like that he was able to use it to hurt you so easily, even if he claimed it was accidental. What do you say, Cass? Together?”
One thing I love about Sophia is that the scientist in her always creates a procedure to move forward, something to quantify improvement. Though I would have never thought to do it myself, the idea of tackling the fear that has become my most exploited weakness actually makes me feel better, like the whole experience could make me stronger, somehow. The sliver of hope expands in my heart, and I shoot my friend a grateful smile.
“Together.”
Feelingmuch lighter than I did at the start of this day, I steer onto my street, car rumbling over the compressed snow.
I wish I had confided in Soph a while ago.
Then again, as happy as I am to finally have her guidance and support, I know the new information will weigh heavily on her conscience. She’s an extremely methodical person, which often tricks those around her into believing she can handle anything thrown her way. I’m the only one who seems to see the emotional weight she absorbs like a sponge, releasing it all into the confines of her systematic mind. It’s why I wanted to protect her from any pain in the first place.
I exhale a sigh of relief seeing that Veronica’s car is missing from the driveway, carefully driving up the icy surface and parking. As I slip from the driver’s seat, school bag in hand, a strange, dark car catches my eye in the side mirror.
It’s an expensive SUV. Too nice to blend into the cheap, college neighborhood. Side-eyeing the suspicious sight, I make my way into the house and close the door. My last conversation with Mikhail flashes through my mind, when he had shown up at my door a few days back and tried to feed me that deranged explanation.
Would he really show up again?
Suddenly, I’m overwhelmed with a righteous sense of anger. He better not be out there in that fancy car waiting for me to come home. I told him to leave me the fuck alone! After everything that happened, I honestly believed he would respect such a small, simple request.
Before I can second-guess my actions, I’m cranking open the front door once more, storming across the street in my knee-high snow boots. My knuckles smack against the tinted window a few times until it begins to slide open.
The blonde man who stares back at me looks strikingly familiar.
It doesn’t take long to place how I know him. He’s the one who was with Mikhail when that man drugged me at the club. And he’s the one who burst into that horrible room behind him, cracking into the frozen state of panic that surrounded me.
“Where is he?” I snap, too angry to feel any intelligent sense of fear.
“He’s not here. I’m Ivan. I’ve been assigned to watch over you for the time being.”
The man speaks carefully, as if trying to reason with a wild animal. I guess he’s not too far off. I wouldn’t put it past me to bite the motherfucker if he dared come any closer.
“Go watch over someone else! I don’t want anything to do with you people.”
“I just follow the orders. Take it up with the Pakhan,” he says, and then the window zips right back up, leaving me staring at a dark reflection of my own furious face in the tinted glass.
I let out a shout of frustration and spun on my feet, marching right back to the house. I rifle through my bag, locating my phone and pulling up the contact page. A few seconds later, I’m practically vibrating with rage as I wait for the ringtone to pick up.
“Cassandra, what’s wrong?”
His dark, urgent voice crackles through the line. I think I like it just a bit too much.
“What’s wrong? You left your lackey on my porch!” I grind into the mic, quickly remembering my fury at the situation.
“That’s just Ivan. Don’t worry about him, he’s only keeping guard.” Mikhail says in a voice that is way too calm for his ridiculous claim.
“The only person I need to be guarded from is you!”
“False.” He says simply.
