“Didn’t want to deal with the doorman,” I explain. I don’t need any more blood on my hands tonight, and that is exactly what would have happened had I been turned away by security for trying to enter the building after hours.
“Are you here to hurt Savina?” Darby then inquires, catching me off-guard.
“No, of course not,” I scoff, as if the idea is inconceivable. Which it kind of is at this point, considering I just tortured and murdered someone for her.
Stepping aside slowly, Darby allows me inside, but keeps the knife aimed at my chest. “Do you know who hurt her then?” she questions while worrying her full lower lip in between her teeth. “Savina has been locked in her room for days and won’t tell me shit.”
“I took care of it,” I answer her honestly. “That man won’t hurt her or anyone else ever again.”
Darby hesitates, allowing my words to fully sink in before she finally seems to retract her claws and relax a little. “Okay, I believe you. But so help me God, Dimitri, if you hurt my best friend, you’re gonna be on my shitlist. And that’s a very bad list to be on,” she says, threatening meagain. And then she adds for good measure, “I watcha lotof true crime documentaries,” before giving me a pointed glare. “I know how to make someone disappear and get away with it,” she says with a whisper.
I have to force myself not to grin as I give her an emphatic nod. It actually makes me happy that Savina has such a caring, overprotective friend. “You have my word,” I vow to her.
Darby stares me down for a few seconds more before she finally nods, giving me her blessing. “Okay, good.” Then, as she’s walking away down the hall to her room, I hear her murmur, “Fuck, I’ve beenreading too many dark romances lately, ‘cause breaking and entering in the middle of the night is normal and freaking hot to me now.”
When I hear Darby’s door clicking shut, I proceed to Savina’s bedroom. I have an overwhelming sense of need to see her, to touch her, to make sure she’s okay. I’ve never experienced something like this before. But this time, the new emotions and the new feelings, they don’t scare me. I want to let them in and swallow me whole. But only for her. Only for Savina.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Savina
I’M LYINGIN bed with dried tears on my pillow and fresh ones streaming down my cheeks. The confrontation today with Dimitri set me off. I know that what happened at the doctor’s office the other day was wrong. But I don’t know what to do about it or who to ask for help. That evil man has nude pictures of me. Who knows what he’ll do with them. God, what if he shows them to Dimitri or his father? Or what if he plasters them on the internet and sells them to strangers?
A fresh wave of sobs hits me. I’ve never felt so hopeless or vulnerable before in my entire life.
A flash of lightning streaks across the window before a thunderous boom echoes through my quiet room. It’s late, and I should be sleeping, but I can’t. My mind is running a million miles a minute, and I know I won’t get any rest anytime soon. I haven’t been able to sleep since the office visit. I’m exhausted. My eyes involuntarilyclose on their own, but my mind won’t let me rest for more than a few minutes at a time.
My hand reaches for my cellphone; and before I can even think about what I’m doing, I have a text open with Dimitri’s name at the top. My fingers start typing, and then I delete everything. I feel an overwhelming urge to tell him that I need him. For some reason, he makes me feel safe. Even if everything about him screams danger, I feel the safest when he’s near. Maybe that’s because deep down I know he’d protect me at all costs. And not just because I’m going to be his future sister-in-law. No, there’s something more there. Maybe there’s something there for both of us, but I can’t even dwell on that right now.
Squeezing my eyes shut and releasing a few tears in the process, I reluctantly hit the button on my phone to make the screen go black and then I toss it somewhere on my bed so that I can’t find it very easily. I can’t text Dimitri. It would be…wrong. He’s not my knight in shining armor. Hell, he’s not even my future husband anymore. I should be texting Pavel, if anything. But then I realize that I don’t even know his cell phone number.
A pathetic laugh escapes my throat as I think that over. God, this is so screwed up.I’mso screwed up.
I lay on my stomach, pressing my face into my pillow. I want to cry. I want to scream. I want to —.
A noise has my ears pricking and my brain going on high alert. It almost sounds like the knob to my bedroom door is slowly turning. Sitting up, I stare at my door. Sure enough, I can see the glint on the shiny metal knob moving in the light shining through my window.
Frantically, I fumble to try to find my cell phone that I cast away moments earlier. Just when my fingers wrap around the familiar hard case of it, my door swings opens.
Slowly, I turn and see a tall, formidable, dark figure standing in the doorway. My mouth opens on a scream. But suddenly, a streak of lightning flashes throughout the room, illuminating Dimitri’s piercing eyes and brutally handsome face.
I snap my mouth shut, and instantly my body begins to tremble. It’s like I’ve been holding myself together for what feels like forever and just seeing him here makes me want to fall apart so that he can gather up the pieces and put me back together again. I’ve wanted to confide in him for days. I’ve wanted him here with me, comforting me. And now he is. Or is he? Maybe I’m just hallucinating from my serious lack of sleep. Maybe Dimitri is not even here right now.
“What…what are you doing here?” I ask breathlessly before pressing the palm of my hand over my chest where my heart is currently racing to escape my ribcage.
He doesn’t talk for a long time. So long, in fact, that I begin to think that maybe I am just hallucinating. Is he really here, standing in my bedroom in the middle of a thunderstorm?
“I went to visit the doctor,” Dimitri finally says, confirming that I am definitely not imagining this.
His words slowly sink in, and my body begins to tremble even more violently. I stay silent, though, waiting for him to continue.
“You weren’t his only victim,” he informs me, shattering my world.
So, I’m not the only one. The doctor must be some kind of sexual deviant, using his position of power to get women to take their clothes off so that he can do whatever he wants afterwards with them while they’re in a vulnerable state. “We have to d-d-do something!” I cry out with fresh tears gathering in my eyes. “He c-can’t get away with this!” I demand.
“I already handled it, Savina,” Dimitri tells me.
There’s something in his tone and in his gaze that has me whispering out loud, “Is he dead?”
