Page 32 of Sold to My Ex's Brother
I prop myself up, frowning at him. “What’s going on?”
“We’re leaving.”
I stare at him for a second. “What are you talking about?”
He glances at me, as though confused that I do not understand. “I said, we’re leaving,” he repeats himself, as though this might just be a matter of me not being able to hear what he is saying.
“I thought it wasn’t safe to go back to the city yet,” I protest, though I’m sure it is useless. I can tell from the look on his face, the steely expression in his eyes, that he’s already made his mind up about this, and nothing is going to move him from his choice.
“My men have secured a new safehouse in the city, an apartment block,” he explains. “I can get back in there. Deal with the shit my brother has been pulling?—”
“But what if he comes after me again?” I ask, my voice laced with more fear than I ever knew I was capable of. I know that I need to be careful here, not just for myself, but for my child. For our child.
As soon as I mention that, though, his eyes darken. “You’ll be with me,” he replies curtly. “Where I can be sure that you’re safe.”
“Anton—”
“I’ll make some coffee and then we’re going,” he tells me, turning to walk out of the room.
And just like that, I’m alone again, trying to make sense of everything that has just happened. Because how can I go from the soaring high of his body against mine, his sweet, sleepy tones when he greeted me, tothis?
I guess I’m going to have to get used to it, especially if he is so intent on keeping me at his side. This man, for all that he seems to care for me, seems intent on looking out for me, wants to control me—he might call it protection, but I can see it for what it is, and I’m not sure if I should be so quick to give in to it.
But, at the same time, I’m not sure how much of a choice I have in the matter. And the best thing for me right now might be keeping my head down and praying that I can stay out of trouble.
Even if it feels like we are walking back into a mess bigger than any I have known before.
14
ANTON
I heara slight creak outside my office door, and my head snaps up. I’ve been on edge since the moment we arrived here last week, even though I’m certain that nobody could close the distance between themselves and this place, not without getting past the half-dozen or so guards I have on permanent patrol.
But, when I look up, I find myself gazing at her. Her eyes are on mine, her head cocked slightly to the side, and her eyebrows are knitted together in a hopeful expression.
“Maya,” I remark, rising to my feet. “Is everything okay?”
She nods. “It’s fine,” she replies. “I just... wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help, that’s all.”
I pause for a moment—I don’t know how many times we’re going to have this particular conversation, but she’s not giving up on the matter of her involvement in all of this, no matter how much I try to convince her that she doesn’t want a damn thing to do with it.
I sigh, and she leans in the doorway, chewing her lip.
I know she has been struggling with the guards who are keeping watch over this place. Asked me if she really needed men watching her room while she slept, acting like she was practically being spied on.
“I’m not used to it, that’s all,” she had protested to me, when she had come to me to try and plead her way out of it. “You can’t blame me for thinking this whole thing is a little... weird...”
“You’re going to have to get used to it,” I had told her bluntly. “We can’t leave any gaps in the security. Artem already knows I’m back in the city, and he’s not going to let something like that slide.”
She had pondered that for a moment, and her face had dropped before she responded.
“And does he... does he know that I’m back here, too?” she wondered aloud. I didn’t reply. I still don’t know the answer to that. He didn’t get his hands on her when he came after the house, but that doesn’t mean that he has lost interest in her. Far from it.
I can almost hear the justifications he’d make for it, even now. That there is nothing in this life that he got that I didn’t, and this woman was all that he wanted, all that he asked for.
Shit, I might even have believed him, if I hadn’t been starkly aware of what he did with the women in his life...
But I don’t give a damn about them now. Not a single one applies, not now I know she is pregnant.
