I’ve already decided.
I can’t fix this. Not alone.
I can’t stop Oksana. I don’t even know what she’s capable of.
But Juliet will know how to handle it.
Juliet always does.
At the end of the day, I take a photo of the bakery’s front window.
The one with the hand-painted sign.
The basket of plastic pastries underneath.
The warm glow from inside.
It looks like the kind of place where nothing bad could happen.
But I know better now.
I type.
Me: We have a problem. Oksana isn’t just annoying. She’s dangerous. She’s blackmailing him. Family meeting?
I stare at it for a second.
Then I hit send.
Because protecting someone doesn’t mean keeping secrets.
Sometimes it means telling the girl you love that the guy she’s obsessed with is caught in something real.
Telling the family.
I know they’ll want to protect him, too.
Because that’s what we do.
We protect what’s ours.
And Vitaly?
He’s already ours.
He just doesn’t know it yet.
Chapter Seven
Reid
Her house is just like her.
Sweet. Harmless. A fuck-you lullaby in drywall form.
What will I find when I step inside?
Evidence, probably.
