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Rolling my neck, I let that sink in. “So then it isn’t just when she goes to sleep that you come out.”
“No. I take over when she needs me. Even if she only realizes it subconsciously… But don’t feel like she’s lying to you. She doesn’t have any memory of this, so she doesn’t know.”
“But she knew about the tape. She knew she’d been awake when you took over then.”
Her head tilts, and she pushes hair back when it falls in her eyes. “Give her a break, Alik. You’re an assassin and had no idea I existed for the past six months. I hide from her better than I ever hid from you.”
I stare at her a few moments before letting my chest deflate.
All my instincts… All my precautions…
This woman tiptoed around every signal I have.
She’s right… She’s good. She might even be better than me.
“Why did she need you today?” I ask, my head lazily leaned against the couch as I peer at her.
She bites her lip and looks away. For a moment, she almost looks like Olive.
“Well, I guess she didn’tneedme, per se, this time. Your phone went off, and you know how jumpy she gets. When she’s scared or high, it’s easier to take control, and normally, I resist, but… I didn’t like the way we left things. I needed to see you again, to make things right.”
“Did you turn off my phone?”
My eyes widen when she shrugs.
“You were exhausted.” She purses her lips. “You needed to sleep.”
“You can’t just?—”
“I won’t,” she cuts me off, scooting closer to me. “I’ll never turn it off again. I promise.”
I close my mouth and look up at the ceiling as I lean my head back, my teeth clamped. When her shoulder brushes my arm, I tense but don’t say anything.
“Who’s Vitaly?”
I ignore the question and keep staring at the ceiling.
If this alter can take over, can Olive take the reins back? How long before that happens?
“What happens if you can’t find him before the time is up?”
Still, I say nothing.
She puts a delicate hand on my shoulder. “Please,” she says, her voice small. “Don’t shut me out. I just want to help.”
“You can’t.”
“I may be able to. You never know.”
“He’s an old friend who was recently released from prison and is currently hiding out somewhere in Russia. You can’t find him. I’m not so sure I can even find him.” I angle my shoulder away so she’ll get her hand off me, and when she does, tension winds between us. Not a violent kind. A sad kind. I can almost hear her heart break.
“Is it the friend who’s responsible for your eye?”
My eyes constricted, I roll my head to face her.
“I remember the story you told Olive… Please don’t take offense, but you don’t strike me as the type of person who’s made many friends in his life. Is Vitaly the same one from the story?”
Reluctantly, I nod.
