Page 136 of Jump on Three

“You can’t let me have one fucking day to be happy?”

“Be happy all you want, but Christ, my guy, think of the girl you’ve fallen in love with for half a second.” He flicked his hand. “When Delilah and Evelyn transferred here, I thought Ev was nonverbal. She was that shy. It took her months to speak in the dining hall. It’s been almost two years since they arrived, and I can only now say I know her because she finally blossomed. What do you think will happen when you keep jerking her around? Will she have enough time to blossom in her new home? Or will she keep shrinking and shrinking?”

I stared at him, wanting to punch his smug face. Only he wasn’t smug. He didn’t look happy at all to be delivering this truth bomb.

He exhaled a heavy breath and shook his head. “Don’t be selfish, Ivan. You’re under your father’s control when you don’t want to be. Is it fair to put Evelyn there too?”

Panic struck me in the chest like a fist. No way would I allow my father to have any say over Evelyn…but wasn’t I already? Christ.

He’s right.

He’s right.

He’s right.

“What the fuck do I do, Freddie?” I gasped.

He closed the distance between us and clapped his hands on my shoulders. “If I were you, I would think about what I was willing to give up to stay with her. Start there.”

With that, he left me alone with my thoughts. I fell back against the narrow counter behind me, crushing my water bottle in my fist.

What was I doing? I’d made Evelyn, my angel, do all the bending. I’d been pissed when she hadn’t been willing to, yet I’d done nothing but follow my father’s orders like a good little dog. When I got to Miami and begged for pats, his boot would be right back on my throat.

How could I have even thought for a second I should bring Evelyn anywhere near his influence? Freddie had seen what I’d been too stubborn to admit. Miami was an exertion of my father’s control. When he saw it hadn’t worked, that he hadn’t separated me from my girl, he’d come down harder. It would not end until we were broken. And my girl, as strong as she was, would most likely end up broken first.

That would never happen.

I had to find a way out of this, for Evelyn, but for me too.

I’d never tried because the threat of losing my entire family had been too agonizing to face. It killed me to think I’d never be welcomed home again. I’d never sit at my baba’s table and sift through her tea box for the one I wanted her to make for me. Never eat my mother’s kulebyaka or fight with one of my sisters. But now was the time I had to choose what I wanted the rest of my life to look like.

Under my father’s boot was no place to live, and I was sick and tired of it.

I strode into Marco’s office, closing the door behind me. He didn’t look up from his computer until he was ready, which meant I sat in the chair opposite him, waiting. It was a power play I was used to my dad making. It sent me on red alert for a second, but only a second. Marco wasn’t my father. This was probably a lesson in patience or humility or something.

I could be patient. I had spent the last twenty-four hours coming up with my next move, and Marco was at the crux of it. If he needed me to sit here while he clicked away on his computer to prove I could be humble and patient, I would do that without complaint.

It took him six minutes to finally look up, one eyebrow winged. “What can I do for you, kid?”

Leaning forward, I placed a piece of paper on his desk. “This is my résumé.”

He frowned at it. “That, I see. Why are you giving it to me?”

“I would like to be hired at your new club. As you can see, I have extensive managerial experience.”

He placed his palm on top of it, his eyes sweeping over me. “I will not have Leonid Sokolov anywhere near my property.”

I shook my head. “We are not a package deal. If I work for you, I doubt he will ever speak to me again.”

Marco fell back against his chair and rested his ankle on his opposite knee. Rubbing his chin, he gave me a long, considering stare.

The corner of his mouth hitched. “Goddamn, kid. It’s about time.”

“About…time?”

“To grow a fucking backbone. What made this happen? Losing Evelyn finally make you wake up and grow up?”

“No.” I steepled my hands beneath my chin. “She was going to come with me.”

---