The room tilts.
“That’s not funny,” I say automatically.
“I know,” she says, laughing softly. “That’s the problem. Couldn’t really turn that down, could I?”
I stare at her, my mind scrambling to catch up. Three thousand five hundred a week. That’s more money than she’s ever made, more than sheshouldbe making, more than makes any sense for what I can only assume from her outfit is a hospitality job. My instinctive fear sharpens, twisting into something darker.
“He’s buying you,” I say, hating the way it sounds when it comes out of my mouth. “That kind of money isn’t normal, Dev.”
“No,” she says firmly. “He’s rescuing me.”
She pushes off the table and steps closer, and says, “I don’t have to go back to The Foundry. I don’t have to smile at men who scare me or pretend I don’t hear the things they say. I get benefits. I get a room if I need it, and I can move out of that shitty neighborhood in a few weeks. I feel like I can finally breathe.”
Her eyes shine, and that’s what finally breaks through my panic. Not the money or Kazimir’s involvement. It’s the raw relief that’s etched into her expression.
“I was scared you’d be mad,” she admits. “Or embarrassed.”
“I am,” I say weakly. “A little. Not embarrassed of you, but of…” I don’t know how to explain that the kind of life I live now feelswrong.Unearned. I’m embarrassed that I’ve kept secrets and that I wasn’t able to rescue Devin myself.
She snorts. “I bartended topless for tips. I can survive working for a Russian crime lord.”
I sink into a chair, suddenly exhausted. “I just didn’t want you pulled into this world because of me.”
She crouches in front of me and places her warm hands on my knees. “Aly. I was already in danger.
Silence stretches between us and it’s thick with everything I haven’t told her. The lies are heavy and uncomfortable, and before I can talk myself out of it, the truth spills out of me.
“This whole thing,” I say. “Me and him. It’s not just fake because it’s convenient. It’s fake because someone else threatened me. Another criminal. He said he’d hurt me to get to Kaz.”
Devin’s eyes widen, sharp and focused now.
“And there’s rules,” I continue. Heat creeps up my neck when I say, “no intimacy and no touching. That wasn’t my dad’scondition, although I’m sure he wanted it too. It was something Kazimir added when we met with the lawyer.”
“And?” She prompts gently.
“And, we broke it,” I admit, barely above a whisper.
Her mouth drops open. Then she grins like she’s just been handed the juiciest secret in the world. “Oh my God. You fucked the Bratva boss.”
“I did not?—”
“You absolutely did,” she says, delighted. “I knew it. I knew there was no way that man was looking at you like that and not losing his damn mind.”
“This is a disaster,” I say, and my face is burning with embarrassment.
“This is like a romance novel,” she counters. “A fake engagement; forbidden sex…a mob boss with control issues! Babe, you’re living my dream.”
I groan and cover my face. “It’s dangerous.”
“It’s hot,” she says. “He’s protecting you.”
“I don’t need protection,” I mutter.
She squeezes my knee. “You don’t need to pretend you don’t want him either.”
I look up at her, startled, and she just smiles, soft and knowing.
“Whatever this is,” Devin says, “don’t talk yourself out of it because you’re scared. Let him prove he’s worth the risk.”
