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“Does that mean you won’t kill this one?” Roan’s narrowed gaze snapped to me.
“He knows what is at stake,” I said, trying not to growl the response.
Roan gave Ilya a once over, but I couldn’t tell if he was happy with Oleg’s replacement or not. Although, he’d never been happy with Oleg — period. Roan resented him and I had a feeling Ilya would be no different, regardless of his last name. Frankly, I didn’t give a fuck as long as Roan was safe. Ilya was hired to keep Roan alive and unharmed. Being liked wasn’t a requirement of the job.
Ilya nodded in agreement with me. “Your safety is all that matters.”
It looked like Roan was about to argue, but I cut him off. “I have to go. Ilya will take you home.”
Roan nodded, crossing his arms over his chest. He shifted his weight to his back foot, away from me. “Be careful.” It was all he said. It’s all hecouldsay. There was no parting hug, no kiss. Just a resigned look in his eyes and those two words.
Suppressing the urge to scream out all of my frustration, or just grab him and kiss him, I turned and headed for the door without uttering a single word.
4
ROAN
“Are you finished?”Ilya asked, rising to his feet and buttoning his suit jacket as I approached him for the second time, violin case in hand.
“Yeah. That’s all for today. Are you parked out back?”
He shook his head. “Front.”
“Ok, let’s roll.” I was beyond ready to be done with this day. Between my early-morning fight with Sasha and the hours of tossing and turning after the fact, all I wanted to do was go home and sleep for the next eighteen hours.
“Roan!” Samuel called out behind us, jogging up the aisle.
Summoning the last bit of energy I had left, I suppressed a sigh and stopped, throwing a wary glance at Ilya. Hopefully he wouldn’t be a fucking bulldog like Oleg, otherwise this was going to be awkward as hell to try and explain… Samuel didn’t know about my personal life. No one at the Adler did. Yeah, they saw Sasha and Oleg hanging around (and now Ilya), but I never gave details on who they were or what they were doing and I didn’t want to start. To them, Sasha was one of Feodor’s investors and Oleg was his PA. “Yeah?”
“Are you going to Kelly’s later?” Samuel smiled, his brown eyes bright and hopeful.
“Oh, shit. I forgot.” Complete and utter lie. It’s all anyone talked about today, but there was no way in hell I was going anywhere, let alone to a party full of loud, crazy theater people. “Um, probably not. I’ve got a lot of work to—”
“Aw, come on! You have to go! Please?” Samuel pressed his hands together. When I didn’t respond, he grabbed my shoulders and shook me. “Come on! I need a partner for beer pong!”
Ilya shifted next to me. Before he could beat the shit out of Samuel, I forced a smile to my face and disentangled myself quickly and took a step in Ilya’s direction to head him off at the pass.
“Oh, sorry. Are you two, like, a thing?” Samuel asked, gesturing between Ilya and I.
“No,” I blurted out quickly. “He’s my... cousin. Sorry. Anyway, I’ll think about it. Ok?” Hopefully that would appease him.
“You better. Otherwise there’s no reason for me to go.” He grinned and punched my shoulder lightly. “I’ll text you later. K?”
Nodding, I waved him off and hurried toward the front door before Ilya could start hounding me in front of everyone like I was a fucking toddler.
“Your friend seems nice,” Ilya commented with a non-accusatory tone, falling into step next to me.
“Yeah.” Nice and normal. More importantly, he was completely unaware of the past few months and everything that happened. To him, I was just a musician, just a composer, just Roan. Not a fucking victim or some precious bauble that had to be guarded around the clock. Not weak or pathetic or powerless or unwanted.
“What time should I pick you up tonight?” Ilya asked, holding the front door open.
“For what?”
“Kelly’s? Or whatever you two were talking about?”
“I’m not going.”
“Why not?”
