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She blows a strand of hair off of her forehead. “I’ll give you the short version: don’t drink or eat anything while in public that hasn’t been checked by someone on the security team.”
I clear the hoarseness from my throat. “Maybe give me the slightly longer version?”
“You were drugged. Ivan found you on the bathroom floor of the bakery and carried you outside, but he was stopped by a man with a gun.”
Bits of my dream come back to me. The smell of gunpowder. A bang. Ivan—
“Is he okay?” I rasp.
Anya presses a hand to my shoulder and eases me back into the bed. I didn’t even realize I sat up.
“He’s fine. He was grazed, but it was nothing. The shooter was going after you, not him.” She pulls the blanket over my legs.
As soon as she’s done, I shove the blanket back down and stare at my legs. Mybarelegs. At the threadbare t-shirt that barely covers the tops of my thighs. “Where did I get this shirt? And—” I look around at the oddly familiar room. It looks so much like mine, but in reverse. “Is this Ivan’s room?”
The furnishings are moodier. Dark blue wallpaper, velvet curtains, and walnut. It suits him.
“And Ivan’s shirt.” Anya nods. “He brought you here so you wouldn’t be alone.”
I fight the urge to bring the comforter to my nose and take a deep breath. “I could be ‘not alone’ in my room.”
“He wanted you close. Very close.” She gives me a warm smile.
I pull the blanket back over my bare legs and cross my arms over my chest. “Did you dress me?”
“Not exactly…” She winces.
“Then whoexactlydid, Anya?”
She laughs and runs fingers through her hair. “For someone who just woke up from being drugged, you’re surprisingly coherent. I didn’t think I’d be answering so many questions.”
“Anya.”
She holds up her hands. “It was Ivan. But it wasn’t like that. He just didn’t want you to wake up in bloody clothes and he didn’t trust anyone else to do it.”
“You! You could have done it.”
“I wasn’t here yet. Your options were Ivan, Yasha, or Niles. Take your pick.”
I mull it over for all of three seconds before I realize there was no better option. I’d have to go into witness protection if Niles ever saw me naked and Yasha can’t be trusted with that kind of information. He’d tease me about it for the rest of…well, the rest of however long I know him.
I sink down in the blankets, knowing full well Ivan has already seen me naked multiple times. That isn’t even the problem; I don’t care that he saw me naked.
I care that him taking care of me when I couldn’t take care of myself feels far too intimate for this game we’re playing.
“It’s sweet, isn’t it?” I look over to see Anya has stars in her eyes. “I’ve never seen him so protective of someone before. He made me swear I wouldn’t leave you alone before he left.”
“He left? Where did he go?”
If my dream is to be believed, the man who came at us with the gun killed himself. I blink and see him raising the gun to his chin. I hear the shot echo on the bricks.
I shiver.
Anya shrugs. “He didn’t say. But he made me promise to stay here with you. He looked… Well, I’ve never seen him so shaken. Yasha called and told me what happened and he said the same thing. He said that this was different. Thatyouwere different.”
Her words poke at the dried-up husk of hope in my chest.
“I just think…” Anya perches on the edge of the bed, her hands folded in her lap. “I think this thing between the two of you is real. More real than either of you will admit.”
