Page 244 of Sexting His Assistant

Her eyes flash. “Am I your prisoner too?”

The room goes still.

Pavel looks down.

I don’t answer fast enough.

That is the mistake.

Nina’s face changes. “Wow,” Nina says quietly.

I swallow hard. “You are not my prisoner.”

“You said no before you said anything else.”

“Because you are not safe outside this house.”

“I’m not safe inside it either if the man who attacked me was being held in your basement and nobody thought to tell me.”

I say, “He could not reach you.”

“That is not the point.”

I know that. I hate that I know that.

I say, “Sit down.”

She gives me a look.

I correct myself. “Please.”

“I don’t want to sit.”

“You are pale.”

“I’m angry.”

“Both can be true.”

For a second, I think she will refuse out of principle. Then her hand moves briefly to the side of her head, and she hates that I see it. She walks to the chair opposite my desk and sits down with all the dignity a concussed woman in slippers can manage.

I stay standing because sitting feels impossible.

Nina says, “You have been avoiding me.”

“Yes,” I say.

At least that answer is honest.

Her mouth tightens. “Why?”

I look at her bruised face and tell her the truth I can manage. “Because of the way you looked at me after I shot him.”

She goes quiet. Then Nina says, “I watched someone die.”

“I know.”

“You did it right in front of me.”