Sighing, I leaned my forehead against the cool glass, the change in temperature sending a shiver down my spine. The room was so quiet that I was suddenly aware of a raised voice, which I instantly knew belonged to Roman.
Deciding that facing him was better than hiding in here, letting other people sort my shit, I walked to the door and opened it. I moved towards the sound, his words becoming clearer with each step.
“… I have no idea who she is. Six years. Six fucking years I’ve been there. Watching her every move. How did I not know? How did I not see any of it? I feel like an idiot. Shit, I feel like you should sack me and revoke my access to any cameras because I am obviously shit at my job.”
“Roman, you’re spiralling.”
His voice pitched up a notch, his words growing louder as he replied, “Spiralling, Sean? You’re damn fucking right I’m spiralling. I’m the reason her brother was in prison. Me. He went to prison. I walked away. He called me, asked me to look out for her, and then he died. One job. I had one job. It took me years to find her, and now I find out she was being pimped out as some fucking fixer when I should have been protecting her. Me! And by the time I actually found her, she’d managed to break free. On her own. She didn’t need me. She did that by herself. And then what? I watched her while she punished herself, blamed herself, and I had no fucking clue. She’s not the Hana I know. I have no idea who that woman in there is, but she’s notmyHana.”
I stood frozen, unable to make sense of anything I was hearing as their conversation continued.
“She was neveryourHana. She was a job. A job you got yourself obsessed with. A job Thomas brought here so you could have something real. And now she isyour Hana. She chose you, but you have to choose her. We can’t change our pasts. Fuck, everyone in this building has a past we wish was different. Does that make us bad people? No. Yes, you were obsessed with her while you were watching her, but now, you’re in love with a real person, and you don’t get to walk away because she isn’t the damsel in distress you thought she was. You’re better than that, Roman. She deserves better than that. Tony gave you a job. You found her, you protected her… you did your job, but now she needs your help. Are you going to step up? Are you going to bethe man tasked with watching her through a camera, or the man who claims to love her and will protect her at all costs?”
My breath came in short, shallow pants, disbelief spreading through me like a cancer.
He’d known Tony.
He’d been watching me for six years.
He’d lied to me from the minute we met.
I was going to fucking kill him.
54
ROMAN
As Sean berated me,an uncomfortable feeling crawled over my skin, like eyes watching me. The hair on the back of my neck stood to attention, and I turned, glancing back the way we’d come earlier, knowing she was there before I even saw her.
Hana.
She looked furious, her nostrils flaring and her hand resting at the base of her throat as if my admission was choking her. I swallowed hard, my reaction making Sean flick his gaze in the direction I was looking.
“Shit,” he muttered under his breath.
Shit indeed.
“I’m going to leave you two to talk,” he said, louder this time. “Maybe you should spill all your secrets. Start afresh.” He slapped his hand on my shoulder, leaning in to whisper, “Good luck. You’re going to need it.” His parting words echoed along the corridor as he walked away, leaving Hana and me alone.
She didn’t hang around, storming back into the room we came from. I followed, closing the door behind us and locking it before hitting the button that closed the blinds, making the room totally private and soundproof.
“Six years,” she yelled, her hands on her hips, her chest heaving like she’d run a marathon. “You’ve been spying on me for six years?”
I nodded.
“Like… how, where… I’m so confused.”
I grabbed the back of my neck, puffing out my cheeks as I blew out a long breath before answering, “It started on your flat… the front door, the outside of your building, and your work. Then it was your car, your phone, inside the crappy places you worked and then, about four years ago, I had cameras in your home.”
“Inside my home?” Her words were whispered, as if she didn’t dare speak them out loud.
“I had to keep an eye on you.”
She wrenched out a chair, collapsing into it like my admission was too heavy to hear. “Let’s start with that, shall we? You knew my brother… he went to prison because of you?”
It dawned on me that she must have heard the entire conversation with Sean, and there was no hiding my past now. I sat two seats down from her, wary of getting too close.
“I knew your brother. We were friends. We were in the same gang—I told you I was in a gang—and I was on that job when he got arrested. I was in the van, being the lookout, and he told me to run through our comms. I watched the building from the end of the road like a coward as he got dragged out by the cops.” The memories resurfaced, as did the guilt I felt about my actions that day. “I had no idea about Preston or that you existed until Tony called me from prison. The morning of the riot. He was panicked, and he asked me to ‘watch you’. Made me promise. I was already playing around with the surveillance stuff when I met him, and he obviously knew I could look out for you. He trusted me to take care of you.”
