This strange and wonderful connection we’ve forged? It’s growing stronger every moment we spend together, and he feels it too. I’d bet on it.
Reaching into my purse, I snag the drawing of the two of us. We look so happy. Staring at one another, looking like we really are in love. There’s only one problem.
“I wish this was really me,” I whisper.
“Unless I spent the night with your twin sister, and she’s currently hiding under the bed…” Griff smiles until he realizes I’m not joking. “How is this not you?”
“In the picture, my eyes are blue.”
Understanding dawns, and he swears under his breath. “Fuck. I’m such an idiot. But, Sloane…” He balls his right hand into a fist, his knuckles cracking, then eases the drawing from my hand and traces the lines of his arm wrapped around my waist. “Thisisyou. The woman I spent the evening with? She wasn’t someone’s creation. Her laugh wasn’t for show. Her smile wasn’t forced.”
He’s right. I hate having to hide my eyes. Not being able to speak the language Mama taught me. But even though this isn’t the life I wanted, itisa life.
“What can I do?” he asks. “Tell me what you need right now.”
You.
To know when this is all over, you’ll still look at me the way you do now.
To be seen.
But I don’t say any of those things. I can’t. Because if I do and he rejects me? I won’t be able to pretend any more.
* * *
Griff
I ordered a fresh tea tray from room service and set it on the corner of the jetted tub while Sloane removes her contact lenses. She asked for time alone to take a long, hot bath, and that’ll give me a chance to talk to Austin alone.
“Promise me one thing,” I say from the bathroom doorway.
“What?” She doesn’t look directly at me, and there’s nothing I want more than to hold her.
“Put your phone on do not disturb. Don’t look at your messages or your email. None of it. That asshole doesn’t deserve any more of your energy tonight.”
“I have to pay him first.” She fiddles with the hem of her sweater, and dammit. I want to punch something.
“Sloane, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Let me talk to Austin first.”
A tear tumbles down her cheek, but she doesn’t seem to notice—or care. “I was two hours late with the first payment, and he sent someone to break into my house and hurt me. What if tonight, he comes after Marina? Or you? Let me do this. Then I’ll turn my phone off completely. Okay?”
Agreeing goes against my every instinct, but Volkov’s willingness to hurt Sloane—and anyone she cares for—without a second thought is too dangerous until we know more about his whereabouts. “Okay. But this is the last time. We’re going to find him.”
She nods, and I shut both the bathroom and bedroom doors. If our evening together showed me anything, it’s that my feelings for Sloane have gone beyond the casual. It’s easy to care about her. Easy to…
Stop. She’s too scared right now for anything to happen. Even if you both want it to.
Austin picks up seconds after I finish dialing. “We got a lead on Volkov.”
“Thank fuck. You got the text? From Sloane’s number?”
“Ripper’s on it. He’s going to send Sloane some link that’ll open a program to clone her cell. I don’t know how it works, but it’ll let us see any messages she gets simultaneously. Whoever’s on the ground there is smart. The threats each came from a different number, and neither of those SIMs are in use now. But Volkov left the U.S. the same day Sloane did, only his flight took him from Philly to Germany. He traveled under a fake name—Donny Vance—so he’s obviously got contacts. And money.”
“And the guy at the presser?” I can still see the glee on that asshole’s face as Sloane fought against her panic.
“The cameras around theBahnhofstrassedidn’t get a single clear shot of your tail. There aren’t many of them, and they need to be cleaned. But facial recognition between those shots and the footage from the press conference? A seventy-five percent match. The man following you was Pavel Andrei.”
“I’m assuming Wren—and Ripper?—are tapped into the hotel’s security system now?”
