Page 23 of Guarded Rebellion

Well? I didn’t think any of this waswell. It wasn’t good news that questions were popping up about someone I had to kill to reach Yusuf. Hearing reports about a dead man being spotted alive and mobile would never constitute as a positive development.

Nor was it favorable that I lacked intel about the Petrovs on campus. Even though my main job was to be Eva’s bodyguard, he had also asked me to spy on the Petrovs there. Without any news to offer him about our rivals’ movements, even on a college campus, I felt like I was failing him in that.

“You’re managing?” Oleg asked. “You have enough men?”

I don’t think I even need the men I have now.“Yes, sir.”

His questions struck a nerve, though. Just what was he expecting to happen? What was his ulterior motive in allowing Eva to attend her classes there? This man never did anything without at least one or two other goals, but I had yet to figure it out.

“Is there anything I need to be updated on?” I asked.

“No.” The Boss shook his head. “Nothing yet.”

Yet?I didn’t like the sound of that. If Oleg had me watching Eva on campus because he counted on a threat or danger there, then I wanted to knownow. Not later.

Eva’s safety and security were elements of my job, but the more I tolerated her sass and wondered how I could tweak this slow build-up of sexual tension into something far more fulfilling, I struggled with the thought that the younger woman could matter to me on a personal level.

Staking out and killing Yusuf Ilyin was just a job. It was a done and dusted job, one well done with his death.

But it wasn’t as easy to convince myself that Eva’s protection was also just a job anymore. It couldn’t be when she was always on my mind, when she was taking over my thoughts and spearheading my desire to focus on her.

“Am I dismissed?” I asked a half hour later when topics shifted from the day I killed Yusuf and how Eva’s security was going at college.

“Eager to get back?” Oleg replied teasingly, smiling as he reclined in his chair.

I did my best not to shift my weight on my feet. Keeping them shoulder width apart, my hands clasped behind my back that I held with perfect composure, straight and alert, I looked still and unruffled.

“I am eager to resume my duties and succeed,” I replied.

“Spoken like a true soldier,” another leader remarked.

“Or an ass-kisser,” another joked.

I didn’t flinch. I didn’t budge. They could laugh all they wanted but I refused to break my cool. I wasn’t kissing the Boss’s ass. I was just well aware of why I was allowed to be here in his presence. Oleg had taken a chance on me, accepting me into the Baranov family. And I would always do my duty to ensure I had a place here.

“Eva’s not giving you trouble, is she?” Oleg asked, still keeping that teasing tone.

“No, sir,” I responded, feeling like that was only half a lie.

But I can’t say the same about anyone else.

On the drive back, I did my best to ignore the worry that Eva might have taken a chance to be free of my guardianship and go to the library, the only place I had instructed Marcus to allow her to go to.

She would study there. However, if that Bryce fucker forgot his lesson about getting too close to her…

I gripped the steering wheel tighter, anxious about being separated from Eva this long. Yet, I was more anxious as I realized this clinginess to her couldn’t bode well for me when I knew I had to resist her.

10

EVA

The moment the lecture was over, I was filled with excitement. Intro to British Lit was my favorite class, and I couldn’t wait to start researching for the next paper. Maybe I was one of those hopeless romantics, always intrigued about time-worn relationships countless scholars had read about and analyzed. Shakespeare wouldn’t be touched on until the end of this course, but already, the book nerd in me was content with the material.

“Are you going to the study group in the library tonight?” Kelly asked. She frowned, though, craning her neck to see through the crowd. “Wait. Where’s Lev?”

“He had a meeting to attend.”

“Oh.”

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