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SASHA
The ride homefrom that God awful masquerade was completely silent. Not even the radio was on to break the stifling absence of sound.
After Roan led the cop away from the coat room, I slipped out unnoticed. My attempt to avoid the crowd altogether was thwarted when another cop caught me in the hallway about two feet from the back door and ushered me into the dining room.
Bennett and Leander were there, speaking with what looked like a detective in hushed, animated tones. Well, Bennett was animated. Leander was either listening intently to the detective or he was on the verge of throwing up. Needless to say, neither one looked pleased. As the hosts of such an outlandish affair, I’m sure they were less than thrilled to have the police crashing their event.
From the pieces of their conversation I could hear and the line of questions being directed at me and the other guests, there had been some sort of serious accident. They didn’t say what. Instead, they disguised it by saying “incident” and “disturbance.”
Once the remainder of the guests were fully ID’ed, the cops let us leave.
Roan was outside the mansion, pacing up and down the sidewalk, alternating between wrapping his arms around himself and shoving his hands in his pockets. He looked ok, except for the mix of emotions on his face. Worry and anger seemed to be the predominant ones, which didn’t bode well for me.
“Where have you been?” he asked as soon as I was close enough, though he didn’t even let me answer. “Misha is here.AndValery. And God knows who else. And they saw you.Valerysaw you.”
Slipping my hand around his bicep, I led him away from the crowd, keeping an eye out for friends and foe alike. “Stop talking.”
“Did you murder that woman?”
“Murder?” I glanced at him, brows furrowed. “What are you talking about? What woman?”
“That blonde chick you were with.”
Daria was dead?
“Fuck.” Christ, apparently thingscouldreach a new level of Hell. I’m sure even in death she’d find another way to fuck me over. It was her specialty, after all. I spent five years in a Russian prison thanks to that bitch and with my luck, I’d spend five times that in an American one. If she wasn’t fucking dead, I’d kill her all over again.
I unlocked my Mercedes and yanked the door open for Roan. He stayed where he was, suspicion in his eyes. “You didn’t deny it.”
“I didn’t kill her, but I will killyouif you don’t stop talking and get your ass in the car.”
He rolled his eyes and slid into the passenger seat. And that’s where he sat, glaring at the windshield, for the rest of the ride. When we got home, he climbed out and didn’t spare a second look in my direction before setting off for our apartment at the briskest pace I think I’d ever seen short of a run.
“Roan.” I stalked after him, barely catching the elevator doors by shoving my arm in at the last second. “Goddamn it. What is the matter with you?”
He glared at me from across the elevator. “Can you goanywherewithout fucking killing someone?”
Shaking my head, I propped my hands on my hips and tipped my head back, hoping I didn’t fucking snap on him. I knew I had to be there for him, but I was getting really fucking tired of being blamed for every single goddamn thing that went sideways.
When the elevator doors slid open, it was me who stormed out first. I keyed us into the apartment and tore them out of the door so I could throw them across the kitchen to the opposite counter. Loosening the tie at my throat, I ripped it over my head and sent it sailing as I stalked across the open space toward the bedroom.
“Just tell me why,” Roan said, storming after me.
“Whywhat?” I shrugged out of my jacket and wadded it into a ball, throwing it in the dry cleaning pile with as much force as I could.
“Why did you kill her?”
Whirling on him, I closed the narrow distance in the closet so fast he stumbled back into the shelving unit. “I didn’t kill anyone.” But I was about to. I wasrealfucking close.
Stubborn as always, he leaned forward, reclaiming the space I’d taken. “Really? Because the last thing I saw was you yanking her out of the room and thirty minutes later she’s dead.”
“I didn’t kill her,” I repeated, enunciating each word, like it would do a damn bit of good. He’d clearly already made up his mind, not that I could blame him based on what he saw.
But he said Misha and Valery were also there. Either one of them could have very well done it. I had no idea what the reason would be, nor did I really care. They both had the necessary skills and her being dead was one less problem for me at the end of the day. I honestly didn’t give a fuck who killed her so long as I didn’t take the blame for it.
Roan, on the other hand, was demanding answers I couldn’t fucking give him no matter how much I wanted to.
“Who was she?” Roan asked.
