I licked my lips and gave him a smug look, leaning into his space.
“I thought I found that, Roman, but it seems he wasn’t up to the challenge after all. But I do need to beg the question after that speech of course. What would you do when I found that man and allowed him into my bed, into my life, and paraded him around the family? Will you tolerate it?”
His eyes narrowed as his hand cupped the back of my neck, his fingers entangling in my hair and the whimper of pleasure that slipped through my lips brought him up short.
He could toss out everything he wanted, could pretend that he had no problem with me finding someone to spend my lifetime with, but it was evident he couldn’t stand it.
He just wouldn’t do a damn thing about it for whatever fucked up reason he had going on in his head.
“Thought so. Take me home,” I ordered, leaning back in my seat and crossing my arms.
Spending more time with him would only kill me, I knew this. I was walking a tight rope I didn’t feel like I could handle. And it wasn’t an end where I would die, but it’s an end that my heart would never be the same if I slipped one way or the other.
And I had no doubt that I was going to slip.
Twenty minutes later, we pulled into my parking garage, and I got out, feeling Roman behind me, but I was still trying to gather myself after his comment.
“You know, you should let me go in first,” he muttered, following me into the elevator.
“Because so many people do things to the staff around here, right? I mean, it’s going to happen,” I answered, heading down to my apartment.
“It’s a high-end place with people all around, but that doesn’t make it safe.”
I paused at my door and turned to face him, crossing my arms.
“I think you’re a little overzealous in this, Roman. I have a doorman and a clerk at the front desk; they were both there. It’s the same one I see all the time.”
With that, I slid my key into the lock and then froze, but the lock had already been turned. I swallowed hard before I felt his body against my back.
“What is it?”
“The lock is flipped.”
Before I could do anything else, he pushed me behind him and then opened the door. I clutched the back of his jacket as I followed him in then gasped at the scene before me.
My couch had been ripped in shreds, paintings were slashed and flipped on the wall, my curtains were torn and discarded on the floor.
“Fuck,” I moaned, looking at the mess then running to the kitchen, and seeing the same thing.
“What were they looking for? They had to know you weren’t here.”
I walked into my guest bathroom, seeing it torn apart as well, then into my own room.
“I can’t….I can’t believe this.”
“Do you believe the threat is a little more real now?” he asked and I turned to glare at him. “Do you know what they were searching for?”
“I have an idea,” I muttered, going back into the kitchen. I grabbed a chair, then went to the cabinet above my stove and opened the fake door inside, pulling my briefcase out of a hidden compartment. “This,” I told him, jumping down.
“That has everything, doesn’t it?”
“All my paperwork and all my thumb drives.”
“They’ll be back, and they’ll kill you if they have to,” he told me, catching my eye. “Pack your bag, you’re leaving.”
“And just where the hell do you think I’m going, Roman? This is my home.”
“You’ll stay with me, it’s the only safe choice, because they won’t know I’m the one on the job,” he said and I felt the shiver race down my spine.
