“With your IT systems?” I replied, the sarcasm clear in my voice.
“It’s a stressful job when clients don’t tell me the whole picture and then lie when I ask them about it.”
We stared at each other in a silent standoff.
“Phone,” I said eventually.
He held up his finger before he vanished from the room. I took the opportunity to look around the place. I’d been a little occupied, being tied up and tormented last time I was here, to really get a good look. The structure was wooden, open plan, spread over one floor, but with high ceilings and enormous skylights that let in the light. The kitchen was also the living area, with an enormous fireplace to one side, and a corridor that led off to the part of the house where I knew the bedrooms were.
My skin burst into goosebumps as I thought about the last time I was here and how Roman took control of my body.
A loud bang next to me had me snapping back to the moment. Roman was there, his hand on the counter with what looked like a photo underneath it.
“Who’s this?” It took me a second to recognise that the image was of me earlier today.
My head jerked to the side, my glare fixed on him. “Are you fucking following me?”
“I asked you a question first. Who is that?” He tapped three times on the driver’s side of the car I was climbing into, but the driver knew enough to keep his face hidden.
My head shook side to side. “Not that it’s your business, but he was the cab driver who took me home.”
“No, he’s not. And why are you getting into a car with stolen plates?”
I swallowed hard. “Fine, he’s a friend.” Not sure how else to explain the stranger whose car I got into as instructed by the text that arrived on my burner phone at 9 am this morning.
“A friend you fucked?” Roman’s shoulders squared, and he went so rigid that he looked like he might break.
“What? Er, no. He’s… no.” I paused, taking in his body language. “Are you jealous?” That made no sense. We’d had sex. Roman Black would never want anything more with someone like me. He could have anyone he wanted, while I couldn’t get a man to say yes to a second date.
“You lied to me.” He sounded angry.
“You’re fucking stalking me.” I sounded angrier. “I bloody knew you weren’t showing up ‘by accident’.” I did dramatic air quotes. “Just give me my phone. I need to get out of here.” Confusion swirled inside me; I should be terrified of this man, questioning why he was here, why he was watching me, but I wasn’t. I didn’t want to run from him, but to him, and that scared me even more. I learnt a long time ago that I couldn’t rely on anyone, especially not this stranger who showed up just as my life imploded. I couldn’t ignore the timing, and I had to question if Roman had a hand in the shit I was facing as my past resurrected itself.
He pulled my phone out of his pocket. “To see him?” He growled his accusation.
“No,” I practically shouted. “I’m not fucking him—anyone.”
“So, you got into a car in a part of town where there aren’t many cameras, and then you, what, went home and slept, then called the same taxi driver to pick you up from home and bring you back to town for your car, and then you drove here.”
It didn’t sound believable at all. “Yes.”
“Liar.”
He put my phone down next to the photo. “You can see yourself out, Hana.”
22
ROMAN
I hated being lied to,which I knew was ironic because I was lying to Hana, but it was my job to know where she was and who she was with. That was why I was pissed. That was all. It wasn’t that she climbed into a car with an unknown man. It wasn’t that she vanished for hours… fucking hours. It wasn’t that she was here, walking with a slight limp that she probably thought I wouldn’t notice, but I did. I noticed everything with her. I knew everything about her.
Except where she’d been for the last ten hours.
And I hated that rage churned inside me like boiling magma, turning my words into red-hot barbs.
“Roman, you’re being stupid. I wasn’t with anyone else. I had something to sort out.”
“So, he wasn’t a taxi driver?” I fired back.
