“I’ll be fine. That reminds me, is that guy still bothering you at work?” I asked even though I knew the answer.
Dmitri wasn’t the type to show mercy. Reason 534 why my body needed to stop betraying me.
Gemma’s face lit up. “He hasn’t come back to the club in a week. I think he finally moved on.”
“That’s great,” I said with a smile, and then asked her the question that was really nagging at me. “Everyone else treating you good?”
Because it was possible that other people were keeping an eye on me. Hopefully,theirfocus wouldn’t extend to my friends. Not that I had many of those.
The couch creaked as Gemma leaned back into it.
“Yeah, it’s honestly been nice. Well, as nice as it can be, considering the job and clientele. For the first time since I moved to the city, I’m starting to have savings.” A huge smile split her face. “I finally feel like a real adult.”
“I’m happy for you,” I said with a matching smile.
Although, the word ‘savings’ sent a twinge down my body. Nothing was in my name despite the high earnings the Bratva paid out. My parents controlled every penny I earned, and doled out small amounts when they were feeling generous. It wasn’t unusual for parents of the people in the Pakhan’s competition to maintain control over us through money. But the ratio my parents gave me in relation to the amount I brought in was truly pathetic.
Hence the apartment with a broken heater.
“What about you?” she asked. “How’s the boring job going?”
“Boring,” I lied.
Nothing about the last week had been boring. Anxiety spread through my veins every time I left the house. Every face on the street had morphed into a potential threat.
But it hadn’t kept me from leaving the house. I’d scratched and clawed my way to my ranking, I refused to let fear sink me.
“Have you ever thought about getting another job?” Gemma asked. “I bet I could get you a job at the club. You have a smoking body.”
I smiled at the genuine compliment. It was so different from the backhanded ones from people I worked with, or the creepyones from the men I’d eventually kill. It felt nice to not have to be on guard.
“Nah, I’m good.”
Plus, leaving the Bratva meant death.
Gemma shrugged. “If you could have any job in the world, what would you do?”
I blinked. For most of my life, I’d been so focused on surviving the competition and my father, that it’d never even occurred to me to dream of anything else.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. Who was I beyond the Bratva?
“Well,Ialways wanted to have a bookstore. Just being around books makes me happy.” She stared up at the cracked ceiling and smiled. I understood that feeling. Growing up, I used to get lost in books to escape my reality. “When I’ve made a bazillion dollars at the club, I’m opening up one. And I’m making you quit your job so you can help me run it.”
If only. But I laid back and listened to Gemma talk about all her dreams. Let the words soothe me, and for a moment I let myself pretend.
But when a text came in the illusion shattered, and all my sense of security with it.
The text was from my mother, and it contained the words that always sent my stomach into a nosedive.
“You should come home, Alisa.”
Chapter ten
Alisa
Chilling wind whipped across my hands and poked at the hole in my puffy jacket. It was a consistent reminder that my outfit didn’t belong in this part of town.
A Lamborghini sailed by, sending icy mud in my direction. How had this night gone to such shit? The soothing embrace of the alcohol had left my system during the subway ride to my parents’ neighborhood and my trek up their street.
