Page 36 of Escaping the Bratva

“Too dangerous.”

“More dangerous than leaving me here alone?” I ask.

He grabs his belt off the floor and loops it through his pants. “Yes.”

“How so?”

“This house can be locked down like a fortress. I have cameras everywhere and I won’t be gone long.”

He bends down and places a kiss on my forehead before leaving.

*****

I sit at the island in V’s kitchen, typing away at my laptop when my phone rings.

I pick it up, not bothering to check the caller ID. “Hello?”

“Hi, Sasha. This is Jessica. I came to your apartment to let Teddy out but…”

Oh shit, I completely forgot about hiring Jessica.

“I took him to work with me today. I'm so sorry I forgot to tell you.”

“That’s fine, but your apartment looks like someone broke in. Are you okay?”

I bite my lip. “Yeah, I’m fine, just making room for some new furniture pieces.”

It’s the lamest excuse ever, and it makes no sense, but that’s all I can think of at the moment.

“Oh…okay, let me know if you need me later this afternoon.”

“Thanks, Jessica,” I say before hanging up. I’m about to place my phone back down on my desk when it vibrates again. This time, the call is from Francesca.

“Hey, what’s up?” I answer. I’ve already notified Haley that I’m working from home today. I didn’t mention the fact that it’s not exactly from my home. She’d ask too many questions if I told her I was staying at V’s place.

“So I’ve been able to stop a couple stories that were getting ready to come out. I was just about to start working on a press release.”

It takes my brain a moment to catch up with what she’s talking about. Oh, that’s right. My entire relationship is now splattered across tabloids. Is that what this is? A relationship? We haven’t talked about anything official, but what we're doing feels like a relationship.

“What do you have in mind?”

“We talked about how Vladmir is now a client, so I figured I’d pretty much relay that information. Something along the lines of, ‘At Elevate, we take on clients who have the potential to build great business and need our assistance with getting the word out. Vladmir Kustov is no different. We have taken Uplift Security on as a business and no personal relationships are involved.’ Something like that.”

It sounds good. It would dull down the story and the tabloids would move on, but it’s not the truth. V and I do have a personal relationship. His words play in my head.

Maybe you can leave the pieces and stop hurting yourself by trying to pick up shards of glass.

“I like it. It will put attention on Uplift Security, but instead of denying the relationship, let’s just make it clear that I don't disclose my personal relationships to the public.”

I know how the public is going to interpret that, but I can’t lie. It’s no one’s business who I spend my time with. It might hurt my business, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take to be authentic.

“Are you sure?”

I look out the glass doors to the backyard where Teddy is running around in fast circles with his tongue out. Something about this feels so right, and if there is one thing I’ve learned from building a billion dollar company, it’s to trust my gut.

“Absolutely.”

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