Page 9 of Unstable

“No,” she drew out the word. “That’s why I’m looking for something to substitute.”

He glared at the side of her face, which was all he could see of her since she refused to look at him. “But I watched you.”

“No.” She turned toward him. “You saw what I wanted you to see. Just like Aster.”

When he stared silently at her, she sighed. “You watched me put it in my mouth. I spit it into the wineglass.” She gestured at the goblet still sitting by the sink in the island. “That’s why I chose the red wine.”

He was stunned. And furious. “Are you kidding me, Rina? Why do you let them do this to you?”

“Not like I have a choice.”

“You always have a choice.”

She rounded on him. “No, Roman, I don’t. The studio owns my life. They choose what I eat, how I look. I don’t even dress myself. I took pills from them once—one time,” she spit out. “It made me feel terrible, like I’d lost several hours of my life. I never want to feel that way again.”

He pondered that. Sounded kind of like what had happened last night. If that idiot Colt had drugged her, he was going to knock his teeth down his throat. Shoving down his anger, he leaned on the counter next to her and crossed his arms over his chest. “What did they give you?”

She shrugged. “I have no idea. Ever since then, I decided I would never take anything from them again. I have to either pretend to swallow, or…” She shook the pill bottle. “Find a replacement.”

His eyes floated over the various vitamins and such that Rina was examining. He couldn’t believe they’d done that to her. No—that wasn’t true. He could believe it, but it still pissed him off. She deserved so much better than the treatment she’d been receiving. He hated Louis and those pretentious idiots even more for subjecting her to this.

“What can I do?”

She slid a curious look his way. “What?”

He gestured to the paraphernalia in front of her. “Tell me how I can help.”

“I…” For a moment, she looked completely taken aback. “I guess you can check these to see if they look the same.”

She passed him a bottle, and he popped the lid to compare it to the tablets in the prescription bottle. He immediately capped it again. “Where is the ‘no’ pile?”

She gestured to a drawer between them. “Just toss it in there.”

He opened it up, and his eyes widened at the sight of all the bottles stored inside. “Whoa.”

She lifted one shoulder. “Been doing this for a while.”

Clearly. Feeling way more pissed off than he probably should, he threw the bottle on top of the rest then closed it up again. He didn’t know how he could help fix this, but he would find a way to do something.

CHAPTER

FOUR

Irina's phone rang, and she slowed the treadmill to a stop, her chest heaving with exertion as she fought to drag in a breath. Her leg muscles wobbled like Jell-O as she stepped off the machine, a result of the hour-long jog she had just endured as an excuse to stay hidden from Roman.

She couldn’t believe she had spilled her guts to him about the drugs. She never told anyone her business—not even Aster, who was her assistant. But Aster's loyalty, first and foremost, lay with Louis and the studio. She did her job, whatever she had to do, and Irina wouldn’t jeopardize that for her.

Seeing Roman’s anger on her behalf reinforced her decision to not take the medication. Unfortunately, seeing that protective side of him had sent her heart skipping erratically in her chest. She couldn’t remember the last time a man had stood up for her like that. Maybe never. Show business was cutthroat, and it was every man—or woman—for themselves.

Roman couldn’t care less what anyone thought about him, that much was obvious, and that confidence was a huge turn-on. So, she had done what any woman with a sense of self-preservation would do. She hid.

For the last three days, she had been practically under house arrest, and she was doing everything in her power to escape him every waking second. She was terrified that if she spent more time with Roman, she would end up throwing herself at him again, and she couldn’t bear the rejection that was sure to follow.

She shuddered. No way. She swore she would never let him see how attracted she was to him.

She rolled her eyes as she picked up her phone from where it lay on the yoga mat and saw the number on the screen. She bit her lip, already dreading the conversation ahead. There was only one reason to be getting a phone call from the Butler County Jail back home where she had grown up.

“Hello?”